Round 2 of the battle to succeed Disney CEO Bob Iger is entering the final stages.<\/p>\n
Iger, the longtime Disney executive who took the CEO job in 2005 before exiting the top role in February 2020, but then assumed the position again in November 2022 after an ill-fated stint from original successor Bob Chapek, will again exit the storied entertainment company when his contract expires later this year. As such, Disney\u2019s second go-around to find Iger\u2019s successor has been simmering underneath the surface for some time.<\/p>\n
The rubber is about to meet the road at the Mouse House.<\/p>\n
According to a report by Meg James in the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/a>, \u201cDisney is expected to name Iger\u2019s successor next month,\u201d with four internal candidates serving as the CEO\u2019s most likely replacements. Josh D\u2019Amaro, head of Disney\u2019s theme parks business, is seen as the likely successor, though the company has been tight-lipped about the process. Television and streaming executive Dana Walden is another candidate observers \u201caren\u2019t counting out,\u201d per the report. In addition to the two front-runners, movie studio head Alan Bergman and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro are also said to be candidates. Pitaro, it should be noted, publicly thwarted rumors<\/a> about his candidacy last March, saying he was in his \u201cdream job\u201d as head of ESPN.<\/p>\n Regardless, whoever gets the job will have final say about the direction ESPN takes in the coming years. For example, it\u2019s likely that ESPN will still need to consummate its equity deal with the NFL when Disney\u2019s new CEO takes over. That alone will be a tricky regulatory process for the new leader to navigate.<\/p>\n Then, medium- to long-term, there are always questions about ESPN\u2019s overall fit within the Disney portfolio, and whether the asset would be better served as a separate entity from Disney altogether. As we noted in our year-end write-up on ESPN, the network is at a crossroads, simultaneously nursing its lucrative linear television business while building for a digital future. As ESPN\u2019s linear business continues its inevitable decline, its future becomes more uncertain. Disney\u2019s new CEO will be tasked with making some key decisions regarding ESPN\u2019s future.<\/p>\n In his two decades at Disney\u2019s helm, Iger oversaw ESPN\u2019s ascent into the company\u2019s biggest revenue driver, and its steady decline mirroring the rest of the pay TV business. His successor will face an entirely new set of challenges for the Worldwide Leader in Sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Round 2 of the battle to succeed Disney CEO Bob Iger is entering the final stages. Iger, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[18351,46632,105798,88,200650,200651,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-419744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-alan-bergman","9":"tag-bob-iger","10":"tag-dana-walden","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-jimmy-pitaro","13":"tag-josh-damaro","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}