Is Bob Iger right? Is broadcast TV dead?

The Walt Disney Company is one of the world’s largest media organisations. So when its CEO says that television might no longer be core to its business, writes Ticker’s Ahron Young.

Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, shocked the industry when he said the company is contemplating the sale of ABC Television.

He says the TV assets may not be integral to Disney’s future.

That’s a shocking assessment of the industry and cannot be ignored.

“After coming back, I realized the company is facing a lot of challenges, some of them self-inflicted,” Iger told CNBC.

Disney is going to be ‘expansive’ in its thinking about the traditional TV business, leaving the door open to a possible ‘sale of the networks,’.

‘They may not be core to Disney,” Iger said.

‘There’s clearly creativity and content that they created at its core to Disney, but the distribution model, the business model that forms the underpinning of that business and that has delivered great profits over the years, is definitely broken,” Iger added.

What that means for the broader industry is uncertain. Television is still big business, albeit a slowly dying one. A slow death is better than a fast death.

Iger of course built his career at ABC in New York.

Cast on the set of one of ABC television’s most profitable shows, Good Morning America.

Disney’s TV assets

Disney’s extensive television portfolio, which encompasses properties such as broadcaster ABC and cable networks including National Geographic and FX, could potentially be up for sale.

While Iger did not explicitly confirm the sale, he acknowledged that these properties might not align with Disney’s core focus and emphasized the company’s objective evaluation of their future.

Having previously served as a senior executive at ABC, Iger expressed his belief that linear television is an industry in perpetual struggle.

He says they are plagued by a fundamentally flawed business model.

He stated that the transformational forces unleashed by new technologies have severely impacted traditional TV.

However, Iger made a notable exception for ESPN, the renowned sports media giant that Disney has owned since 1996, highlighting the company’s distinct approach to its evaluation.

In contrast to the broader television landscape, Iger pointed out that ESPN has navigated the industry’s evolution more successfully.

The impact of technology on ESPN has been different from that on traditional linear TV networks. Iger’s statement implies that Disney views ESPN as a valuable asset within their portfolio, distinct from the other TV properties they own.

With this perspective, Iger’s comments suggest that Disney is open to considering strategic decisions regarding their television properties.

While he acknowledged the challenges faced by the industry as a whole, he emphasized the need for Disney to critically assess the alignment of each property with the company’s core objectives.