In February 2020, Disney CEO Bob Iger stepped down after 15 years at the helm. He was replaced by former Disney Parks Chairman, Bob Chapek. As we all know, just about one month after Chapek took the reins, he was forced to shut down all Disney theme parks, stop all film and television productions, and furlough tens of thousands of employees because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was something no Disney CEO had ever had to deal with, and he had only been CEO for a few weeks.
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Unfortunately for Chapek, the pandemic was just the beginning of what would be a very rocky tenure. During his time as CEO, Chapek ended the popular — and free — FastPass system, implementing a paid system. Then, he made many LGBTQIA+ cast members feel like they didn’t matter when he called Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill “irrelevant” to the company.
Once the theme parks were open, guests were constantly griping about the increased costs and decreased quality of both food and merchandise. Chapek also struggled to get on fans’ good sides, since he wasn’t the most personable of people. He was constantly compared to, not only Iger, but also the new Disney Parks Chairman, Josh D’Amaro.
In November 2022, Disney’s Board of Directors had had enough. Chapek was fired after less than three years and Bob Iger was reinstated as CEO.
Since his termination, Chapek has never spoken publicly about Disney or his time there. However, insiders who were close to him said that he called his time as Disney CEO, “three years of hell.”
After more than a year, Chapek is finally talking about the Mouse House, and he is not being complimentary.
CNBC has released a new documentary, ESPN’s Fight For Dominance. Producers managed to get Chapek to agree to an interview, and he was brutally honest about his thoughts on the sports entertainment giant.
For months, Iger has been open about the fact that Disney is considering looking for a “strategic partner” to help with ESPN. Disney would consider selling a stake in ESPN to a company that can help them improve their direct-to-consumer offerings, as well as its streaming content and general content.
Chapek, however, doesn’t think that Disney needs a partner for ESPN. Per CNBC:
“Strategically, I don’t really see a benefit in bringing on yet another minority partner into ESPN.”
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However, he thinks that Disney may be a little desperate for cash, since they will soon have to cough up almost $9 billion to purchase the remaining stake in Hulu from Comcast.
“There’s already one minority strategic partner in Hearst. So this would be bringing on a second minority strategic partner,” Chapek said. “Obviously, the benefit of doing that is that you make available some cash. And given some of the conversation that’s been happening between Comcast and Disney in terms of needing to buy the final share of Hulu to make it wholly owned by the Disney company, it’s possible that maybe that cash itself is what they’re after.”
Disney is still waiting for the final appraisal on how much Comcast’s stake in Hulu is worth. $8.6 billion was the minimum amount that Disney agreed to pay, but will have to pay more if Comcast’s stake in the streaming platform is worth more than initial estimates. Disney has said its purchase of Hulu should be completed by the end of the year.
Do you agree with Bob Chapek about ESPN? Let us know in the comments!