Transcript: The New Disney Magic

The Mouse House has a winning formula

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Elaine Low (00:04):

Welcome to The Ankler Podcast. It's Thursday, November 14th, and I'm Elaine Low, author of the Series Business newsletter, here with The Wakeup's Sean McNulty and the Ankler himself, Richard Rushfield, who, unlike Disney chief Bob Iger, is definitely not going to have a hot mic moment on the pod today, right?

Richard Rushfield (00:23):

The night is young.

Sean McNulty (00:25):

Richard loves a hot mic. That's all I got to say.

Elaine Low (00:28):

Every mic is a hot mic with Richard.

Sean McNulty (00:30):

Every mic's a hot mic with Richard. Exactly, right. Yeah.

Richard Rushfield (00:31):

People start telling me how Apple will never buy Disney and that's never going to happen, you don't know where tempers will go.

Sean McNulty (00:39):

Hot mic for Richard would be denying that deal for once, Elaine, I think.

Elaine Low (00:45):

Can you believe Richard thinks Apple and Disney aren't going to merge?

Sean McNulty (00:47):

Oh my. Oh, total BS. That's not happening.

Elaine Low (00:52):

He's doing for the clicks.

Richard Rushfield (00:55):

They're focusing on the watches this year.

Sean McNulty (00:57):

Yeah, exactly. The home devices.

Elaine Low (01:00):

We're talking, of course, about today's Disney's big quarterly earnings call where Iger, normally a pretty smooth operator, was like, I don't know if I was supposed to drop those AVOD numbers on the call.

Sean McNulty (01:13):

It was surprising to hear.

Elaine Low (01:16):

And we've just about wrapped up earnings season for media and the entertainment segment, and I'm super curious about your big picture takeaways, Sean, but first, shout out to Spotify with a nice little achievement this week.

Sean McNulty (01:29):

It's 18 years and they finally found an annual profit. So Richard, hope is still out there. 18 years to find your profitability. That's not a bad ratio, right?

Richard Rushfield (01:37):

I mean, could have been never so yeah. So if you're a company that's been losing money for a mere decade now, don't give up.

Sean McNulty (01:47):

Plenty of time. Eight years. Peacock, you got until at least 2034 or something like that.

Elaine Low (01:50):

Is that really how long it's been?

Sean McNulty (01:53):

They existed for 18 years. They came to the U.S. in 2011 or 2013, so give or take 10 or 12 years as a global business, but yeah, it is going to be over a billion dollars. They lost over $500 million last year and they're going to be clearing over a billion dollars this year. So it's an inspirational tale, Elaine, for all the kids out there looking to make it big in the streaming business. It is possible.

Richard Rushfield (02:16):

Only little people like us think of a business in terms of what's the business worth to you. It's a question of what's the business worth to someone else.

Elaine Low (02:24):

That's what their Spotify Wrapped will say this year.

Richard Rushfield (02:27):

Exactly. So I may be losing tons of money, but you, combine it with your direct shoe sales company, then your…

Sean McNulty (02:37):

Sky's the limit.

Richard Rushfield (02:38):

... the hockey stick.

Elaine Low (02:40):

Well, speaking of a company that has many irons in the fire, let's get back to the company of the hour. Disney, strong fourth quarter stock popping on Thursday. It's a nice setup for 2025 given how down everyone's been feeling about the state of the business this year, and again, strong numbers that we'll dive into soon. But first a word from outside that there might be a new plot twist to the season of Disney's succession. Right. Just who will succeed Bob Iger after 2026? Well, the Wall Street Journal reported this week that the House of Mouse is looking at some "fresh candidates." Some of those names swirling in the ether... Actually the main name swirling of the ether includes Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson, according to this report. What do you make of that, Richard?

Richard Rushfield (03:25):

I make that Andrew Wilson really wants you to know that Disney thinks he could be the next CEO.

Elaine Low (03:31):

You think the leak is not coming from inside the Magic Kingdom?