Christine Maccarthy: Last News

Disney seems to be following a similar strategy as HBO Max and other streaming services that have removed content to take a write off.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney has recruited Hugh Johnston, a 34-year veteran of PepsiCo, as chief financial officer. He steps into the role left vacant after former CFO Christine McCarthy’s exit from the Mouse House was announced earlier this year. Johnston assumes the Disney CFO job effective Dec.

Disney today named Hugh F. Johnston its new chief financial officer as of Dec. 4, replacing interim CFO December 4, 2023, Kevin Lansberry, who will return to his position as EVP and CFO of the company’s Experiences segment.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Warwick Davis is the face of the “Willow” franchise, which kicked off in 1988 with Ron Howard’s fantasy film and continued with the short-lived Disney+ sequel series in 2022. Disney canceled the television series after only one eight-episode season, and then it pulled the show off of Disney+ entirely for cost-cutting measures. Davis is now calling out Disney on X (formerly Twitter), asking the studio in a recent post to answer the many fans wondering why they can no longer watch the show via streaming.

Disney has been hit again with another lawsuit from investors over the alleged sleight of hand accounting the company used to hide streaming losses.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The nation’s biggest media chiefs have for months asked investors to be patient. Wait until the back half of 2023, they’ve said, when ad money will start to flow once again. Now companies like Paramount Global, Comcast, Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery need to play a waiting game of their own. Ad budgets are expected to be down in the industry’s “upfront” market, when U.S. media companies try to sew up deals for the bulk of their advertising inventory ahead of the fall launch of their next programming cycle. Big marketers are not only uncertain about what new content will be available come autumn – a writers’ strike has squelched production of everything from late-night programs to scripted comedies and dramas – but what they should expect from the economy over the next few months.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney’s chief diversity officer and senior vice president Latondra Newton is exiting her role after more than six years, according to an internal memo obtained by Variety. An individual with knowledge of the situation says that Newton will be joining the corporate board of another company soon, and plans to devote more time to her self-owned creative company. In her role as head of DEI operations at Disney, Newton was charged with overseeing the company’s “commitment to produce entertainment that reflects a global audience and sustains a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone.”

Earnings calls, those ritualized quarterly opportunities for public companies to convey the state of their financial affairs to Wall Street analysts and investors at large, are two-handed affairs for the Walt Disney Co.

Christine McCarthy, a significant figure in Disney’s senior management team in recent years, is stepping down and taking a medical leave of absence from the company.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor In another shocker for the Walt Disney Co., Christine McCarthy is stepping down from her role as executive VP and chief financial officer and will take a family medical leave, Disney said Thursday. Kevin Lansberry has been named interim CFO for the media giant as of July 1. “Christine McCarthy is one of the most admired financial executives in America, and her impact on The Walt Disney Company during 23 years of dedicated service cannot be overstated,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said. “Christine has served as a key strategic anchor during a period of great transformation, and she and I have discussed her desire to ensure an orderly and successful CFO succession in advance of the company’s transition to its next chief executive officer. She is stepping down from her CFO role as she takes family medical leave, but has graciously offered to move into an advisory position to assist her successor in assuming the duties she has so expertly handled these many years.”

Disney made it official with an SEC filing after the markets closed Friday, saying it would take $1.5 billion in write-downs associated with removing streaming programming from its platforms.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney, after removing dozens of shows and movies from Disney+ and Hulu last week, said it will incur a $1.5 billion impairment charge for the June quarter. In an SEC filing Friday, the company said that on May 26, 2023, it removed “certain produced content” from its direct-to-consumer streaming services. As a result, Disney will record a $1.5 billion impairment charge in its fiscal third quarter financial statements “to adjust the carrying value of these content assets to fair value.” Disney said it’s continuing to review content on streaming platforms and “currently anticipates additional produced content will be removed from its DTC and other platforms, largely during the remainder of its third fiscal quarter.” As a result, Disney currently estimates it may incur further impairment charges of up to about $400 million related to produced content.

Disney+ is set to remove a number of movies, TV series and specials from the streaming service at the end of the month — you can find the full list of titles below.The decision was first announced on May 10 during a Disney earnings call, and now all of the impacted titles have been revealed.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney’s culling its content on Disney+ and Hulu is coming as early as next week — with the media company pulling off more than two dozen titles, including series “Willow,” “The Mysterious Benedict Society” and “Dollface,” and movies such as “The One and Only Ivan.” A Disney rep confirmed that 27 titles will be pulled off Disney+ and Hulu. On the company’s earnings call last week, CFO Christine McCarthy said Disney expects to take a write-down in the June quarter of $1.5 billion-$1.8 billion from removing content from its streaming platforms. “We are in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation,” McCarthy told investors. “As a result, we will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms.”

Disney is starting to pull content from streaming, with dozens of series and specials slated to leave Disney+ and Hulu on May 26, Deadline has learned. The titles, which are being removed from Disney’s streaming services globally, include Disney+’s Willow, Big Shot, Turner & Hooch, Just Beyond, Mysterious Benedict Society and The World According To Jeff Goldblum and Hulu’s Y: The Last Man, Dollface, The Hot Zone, Maggie, Pistol and Little Demon.

Walt Disney CFO Christine McCarthy nudged investors to discard a few narratives that emerged from the latest earnings: that Disney parks growth may be unsustainable and that the company is shedding subscribers and slashing streaming content.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney has pegged total cash content spending at around $30 billion for this year — but the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike may drive that down, CFO Christine McCarthy said. “If you haven’t noticed we’re in the middle of a writers strike,” McCarthy said, speaking Wednesday at MoffettNathanson’s Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York. The WGA walkout may reduce Disney’s cash spending on content for the balance of the year, she said. At the MoffettNathanson conference, MCarthy appeared alongside Disney president of ad sales Rita Ferro. The two Disney execs spoke a day after the media conglom’s upfront presentation in the Big Apple to ad buyers and brands — which was noticeably light on scripted fare, given the writers strike. Marvel’s Kevin Feige previewed upcoming Disney+ series “Secret Invasion,” featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Don Cheadle, and announced premiere dates for “Loki” Season 2 and “Hawkeye” spinoff “Echo.”

J. Kim Murphy Bob Chapek, the former Disney CEO who was abruptly ousted from the company last November, is among a group of executives facing a lawsuit claiming violations of securities law for allegedly providing misleading statements and omissions about Disney+ and its subscriber growth. The case, filed by Local 272 Labor Management Pension Fund on May 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, also names former Disney executive Kareem Daniel and current CFO Christine McCarthy, as well as the Walt Disney Co. itself, as defendants. The document states that the case seeks a lead plaintiff and judicial determination for a class action suit representing Disney shareholders from Dec. 10, 2020 to Nov. 8, 2022.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Disney is going on a diet — but Hulu is still on the menu. Disney CEO Bob Iger and chief financial officer Christine McCarthy delivered a clear message on Wednesday to Wall Street and to Hollywood during Disney’s quarterly earnings call. Disney will cut the overall volume of content produced for its streaming platforms — primarily Disney+ and Hulu — as it deals with a much tighter macroeconomic environment, not to mention the uncertain impact of the writers strike that began May 2. After spending just under $30 billion on content in Disney’s 2022 fiscal year (which ends in September), Iger has targeted $3 billion in savings for 2023. Of that $30 billion, about 30% is devoted to sports rights for ESPN and ABC Sports.

Disney chief executive Bob Iger weighed in on AI today, staying general but calling the battleground technology good for Disney’s business, but disruptive.

Disney will be yanking some content from streaming as it rethinks its costs and strategy, and is looking at a content impairment charge of $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion as it does.