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Eye-Opener: Iger Open to Spinning Off ABC

Mar 11, 2010  •  Post A Comment

Disney chief executive officer Bob Iger told shareholders Wednesday that he was keeping his options open when it to ABC, even possibly spinning the network off from Disney, Reuters reports.

ABC has come under scrutiny lately, specifically in its news division. The network recently cut 300 to 400 jobs from its news division, as part of a larger focus to regain viewers lost to the Internet. 

Iger noted that he is satisfied with ABC and its assets currently, but avoided getting locked in to saying that he’d never remove ABC from Disney. 

"There are no guarantees in terms of what will remain part of our company and what will not," he said.

Analysts quoted by Reuters said Iger wasn’t necessarily signaling at anything immediately drastic in terms of ABC, especially in the wake of a fight with Cablevision over retransmission fees for ABC.

The squabble blacked out ABC on Cablevision customers TVs in New York City a majority of Sunday, and even blacked out the first 15 minutes of the Oscars before a last-minute deal was struck. 

2 Comments

  1. I think it would be a terrible mistake for Disney to spin off ABC. Disney and ABC make a good match and it is an outlet for Disney creative properties.

  2. It is not a matter of “if” the media empires will be forever changed, but “when.” Mr Iger knows as well as anyone that the 60 year old television business model is long past its expected extinction. He will do what ever he has to do to protect his shareholders as he did in the mid ’90’s in leading the repeal of Fin/Syn which devastated the entire creative independent production community. This time he is helpless to effect the course of the social/technological change that is upon us.

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