Walt Disney Restructures Entertainment Businesses to Boost Streaming

FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Walt Disney Company is displayed above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the closing bell as the market takes a significant dip in New York, U.S., February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Walt Disney Company is displayed above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the closing bell as the market takes a significant dip in New York, U.S., February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
TT
20

Walt Disney Restructures Entertainment Businesses to Boost Streaming

FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Walt Disney Company is displayed above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the closing bell as the market takes a significant dip in New York, U.S., February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Walt Disney Company is displayed above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the closing bell as the market takes a significant dip in New York, U.S., February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Walt Disney Co DIS.N said on Monday it had restructured its media and entertainment businesses to accelerate growth of Disney+ and other streaming services as consumers increasingly gravitate to digital viewing.

Under the reorganization, Disney will separate the development and production of programming from distribution to be more responsive to consumer demands.

The move came days after activist investor Daniel Loeb of hedge fund Third Point urged Disney to forgo a dividend payment and double its programming investment in streaming.

Disney shares rose nearly 5% in after-hours trading to $130.76.

The media and theme parks company launched the Disney+ streaming service in November 2019. It has exceeded its own targets by drawing more than 100 million streaming customers worldwide to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.

Streaming pioneer Netflix Inc NFLX.O boasts 193 million, but has built that customer base over the 13 years.

Loeb had argued that Disney needed to cut its dividend to increase spending on new TV shows and movies to sign up new customers more quickly.

Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek, in an interview with CNBC, said the company is planning to increase investments in content but he did not say if it was prepared to cut its dividend to finance the strategy.

“Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it,” Chapek, who took the company’s top job in February, said in a separate statement.

In a statement on Monday, Loeb welcomed Disney’s revamp of its media and entertainment structure, Reuters reported.

“We are pleased to see that Disney is focused on the same opportunity that makes us such enthusiastic shareholders: investing heavily in the (direct-to-consumer) business, positioning Disney to thrive in the next era of entertainment,” Loeb said.

Under the changes, Disney’s studios, general entertainment and sports business would come under one division while distribution and commercialization would fall under a separate global unit.

Disney said its creative teams would develop and produce programming for streaming and traditional platforms, and the distribution group would decide where customers would see it.

Chapek told CNBC there would be layoffs as a result of “centralization” of functions but did not say how many.

Kareem Daniel, formerly president of consumer products, games and publishing, will oversee Disney’s new media and entertainment distribution group, the company said.

Alan Horn and Alan Bergman will continue to head Disney’s studio operations, which will manage programming from big franchises including Marvel, Star Wars, Disney animation and Pixar. Peter Rice will run general entertainment programming and Jimmy Pitaro will oversee sports.

AT&T T.N, which debuted the HBO Max streaming service in May, reorganized in August to combine its film and TV operations under one studio head to better compete in the streaming media wars.

Disney said it would hold an investor day on Dec. 10 to provide more information about its strategy.



Latina Star Selena's Killer Denied Parole 30 Years After Murder

FILE - A portrait of the late singer Selena Quintanilla is seen in the crowd following a posthumous star ceremony for Quintanilla on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - A portrait of the late singer Selena Quintanilla is seen in the crowd following a posthumous star ceremony for Quintanilla on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
TT
20

Latina Star Selena's Killer Denied Parole 30 Years After Murder

FILE - A portrait of the late singer Selena Quintanilla is seen in the crowd following a posthumous star ceremony for Quintanilla on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - A portrait of the late singer Selena Quintanilla is seen in the crowd following a posthumous star ceremony for Quintanilla on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

A woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering a Mexican-American pop star in a Texas motel was denied parole on Thursday, almost three decades after the killing.

Yolanda Saldivar was president of Selena's fan club and had claimed she accidentally shot the singer on March 31, 1995 at a motel room in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The 23-year-old star, whose full name was Selena Quintanilla Perez, was wildly popular in the Mexican-American community of Tejano music -- an upbeat mingle of Texan and Mexican sounds -- and on the verge of breaking through to a larger mainstream audience when she was killed.

"After a thorough consideration of all available information, which included any confidential interviews conducted, it was the parole panel's determination to deny parole to Yolanda Saldivar and set her next parole review for March 2030," the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole said in a statement, according to AFP.

According to the board, the decision was based on the "brutality, violence, assaultive behavior or conscious selection of the victim's vulnerability" of the murder, which indicated Saldivar "poses a continuing threat to public safety."

The singer's family welcomed the decision.

"While nothing can bring Selena back, this decision reaffirms that justice continues to stand for the beautiful life that was taken from us," her family and widower Chris Perez said in a joint statement.

Saldivar, now 64, was a personal assistant to Selena and an employee at her boutique when she fatally shot the star in the back after meeting her at a motel.

The singer had reportedly confronted Saldivar about more than 30,000 dollars missing from her fan club and two of her boutiques.

Witnesses told police that Selena identified Saldivar as her killer before she collapsed and died.

Listed by Billboard magazine as one of the greatest Latin artists of all time, Selena won a Grammy in 1993 and received a posthumous award in 2021.

In 2017, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.