Christine Maccarthy: Last News

People who have sleep issues such as snoring may be more likely to have a stroke, according to new research.

Disney CEO Bob Iger today called Marvel chairman Isaac Perlmutter’s backing of activist investor Nelson Peltz “a curious dynamic.”

As Disney reported better-than-expected financials for the fiscal first quarter, CEO Bob Iger said the company is “embarking on a significant transformation” that will reshape the company he rejoined last November.

The Walt Disney Company will be laying off thousands of employees as a part of a new round of cost cutting measures, CEO Bob Iger revealed today.

Walt Disney is targeting $5.5 billion in cost savings, including $3 billion in non-sports related content, CEO Bob Iger said today on a meaty call after earnings where he detailed a company-wide restructuring.

Disney came out swinging Tuesday against Trian Partners and owner Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who’s pushing a proxy fight to take a seat on Disney’s board. “The current board is the right board for Disney shareholders,” the company said in a filing today with the SEC. “Nelson Peltz does not understand Disney’s business and lacks the skills and experience to assist the board in delivering shareholder value in a rapidly shifting media ecosystem.”

With the unexpected return of Bob Iger last month for a new stint as Disney CEO, the entertainment giant’s veteran chief financial officer Christine McCarthy has emerged as a leading contender to take over the top job.

Kareem Daniel is exiting Disney as head of its Media and Entertainment Distribution division, one day after the ouster of CEO Bob Chapek.

Addressing Wall Street analysts during Disney’s quarterly earnings call, the company’s top executives sought to emphasize their progress toward attaining streaming profitability.

Disney’s chief financial officer Christine McCarthy said today, “We like the hand we have with ESPN,” calling the sports network and streamer an important piece of the broader portfolio.

Disney today cut its Disney+ subscriber growth target to between 135 million and 165 million by the end of fiscal 2024 as it expects users in India to migrate after losing streaming rights to cricket, a huge draw in the region.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorThe loss of streaming rights to Indian Premiere League cricket has spurred the Walt Disney Co. to lower its subscriber target for its Disney+ Hotstar service in India.Christine McCarthy, Disney’s chief financial officer, disclosed the new guidance Wednesday during the company’s fiscal third quarter earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts.

Hulu is offering new and select returning subscribers its basic, ad-supported tier for $1 a month for their first three months.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorDisney is anticipating that over the long term, the majority of Disney+ customers will pick the lower-cost, ad-supported plan, which is set to launch later this year.“Based on our Hulu experience, we actually have more AVOD [ad-supported video-on-demand] than SVOD [subscription VOD] subscribers,” Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said, speaking Wednesday at the 9th Annual MoffettNathanson Media and Communications Summit. “We expect about the same percentage for both Disney+ and Hulu, just based on the experience curve we’ve witnessed.”A few years ago, Hulu revealed that 70% of its viewers were on ad-supported plans with the remainder on the pricier ad-free version.Since announcing plans to roll out Disney+ with ads in March, the company has mostly been mum on details about Disney+ with ads, saying only that it will be less expensive than the ad-free version (currently $7.99/month in the U.S.) and will debut first in the U.S.

Rita Ferra, president of ad sales for Disney, said the forthcoming ad-supported tier of Disney+ will have a less “robust” amount of ads compared with Hulu. That disparity, at least initially, will mainly be because about 65% of viewing on the streaming service is for movies, which don’t lend themselves to commercial interruption.

Walt Disney chief financial officer Christine McCarthy said the company could record a $350 million squeeze on operating income in the current quarter – it’s fiscal third — from its Hong Kong and Shanghai theme parks, tempering the parks division’s upbeat narrative a bit.

Walt Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said the entertainment giant’s total exposure to Russia and Ukraine combined is about 2% of its total operating income — with Ukraine about 10% of that 2%.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorDisney CFO Christine McCarthy insisted that media giant’s move to introduce a cheaper, ad-supported version of Disney Plus later this year is not a “hail Mary” to try to hit aggressive streaming-acquisition goals with a lower entry price.The goal of Disney Plus with ads is to provide consumers an additional choice for how they want to subscribe to the service, according to McCarthy, speaking Monday at Morgan Stanley’s 2022 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.“We had some preconceived notions of what consumers wanted” before the company launched Disney Plus, she said — in other words, the assumption was that people generally wanted zero advertising. McCarthy said Disney did some additional research and found that some consumers viewed ad-supported streaming services more favorably than ad-free services.

Disney CFO Christine McCarthy warned that carriage costs for pay-TV bundle Hulu + Live TV would drive an $800 million to $1 billion increase in streaming costs during the current quarter.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDisney plans to increase spending on Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (DMED) programming by more than $1 billion this quarter versus the same period last year.For the current quarter, the company plans to up its spending on direct-to-consumer programming by between $800 million and $1 billion versus the comparable fiscal 2021 quarter, CFO Christine McCarthy said during Disney’s fiscal Q1 2022 earnings call Wednesday. On the linear network side, content spend is expected to go up by approximately $500 million.“It’s all about content, content, content,” CEO Bob Chapek said on the call, which followed Disney’s announcement that Disney Plus had reached nearly 130 million subscribers by the end of 2021.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe Walt Disney Co. has named longtime J.P.