A week since he was named CEO, Bob Iger visited the Disney headquarters and hosted a town hall.
Iger talked about the company's stance on inclusivity, the current hiring freeze and the future of Disney’s streaming platforms.
According to Variety, when asked what stance the studio takes regarding Florida’s classroom policies regarding LGBTQ topics, the CEO said that the company’s core values of storytelling are “inclusion and acceptance and tolerance.”
“And we can’t lose that,” he said, adding that it will be hard to keep everyone happy but sacrificing the company’s core values isn’t the way to go.
As for the hiring freeze, it was put in place by Iger’s predecessor Bob Chapek earlier this month. According to CNN, Iger noted the hiring freeze as a wise decision and said it would continue as the company dives into its overall “cost structure.”
What is the future of streaming under Iger?
The reappointed CEO faces a great challenge that is the current entertainment landscape ripe with streaming platforms ready to be consolidated, as Tom Jones wrote for Poynter.
Disney owns Hulu, ESPN+ and ABC+ — platforms that already exist along with the content to go along, costing little to serve to customers, as The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle pointed out.
The streaming business is a model “that works best with a few companies that can amortize their investment costs over lots and lots of subscribers — more profits, but also the ability to set lower consumer prices,” the report added.
And this consolidation requires a chief, possibly the same man who took care of Disney during the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox.
During the town hall, Iger made it clear that the streaming services need to start aiming for profitability instead of subscriber growth, per Variety.
Iger’s comeback after a 2-year hiatus
Chapek was tapped in 2020 to step in as CEO as Iger considered running for office on multiple occasions, according to Business Insider. Other rumors indicated he might buy an NBA team.
Iger jokingly said at the town hall that his wife, Willow Bay, told him that he should return as Disney CEO instead of running for president.
“There is no more status quo. But the sun comes up and the world still spins,” Iger said, quoting Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton.”