Disney To Cut $3 Billion In Content Costs Amid $5.5-Billion Savings Push As Bob Iger Makes His Move

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor FX chief John Landgraf and ABC programming head Simran Sethi will expand their duties under an executive shuffle at Disney’s TV operations, one of the first big moves under Dana Walden, who was assigned responsibility for the company’s TV networks after Bob Iger returned as Disney’s CEO. Landgraf will take oversight of National Geographic as well as Onyx Collective, the production unit devoted to projects from communities of color and underrepresented groups. Sethi, meanwhile, will oversee programming and development for both ABC and Freeform. She will continue to report to Craig Erwich, president, Disney Television Group. The moves comes as Tara Duncan, who had been supervising programming for both Onyx Collective and Freeform, will devote her attention solely to Onyx, freeing up the programming duties for Sethi, who had a previous tenure at the cable network.

Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels today predicted the company will hit $4 billion in total cost savings from the merger of Discovery and Warner Media – up from a previous commitment to hit $3.5 billion.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Warner Bros. Discovery continued to work on making all its various pieces, merged together last year, into a cohesive whole. The New York owner of the TNT and TBS cable networks, the HBO Max streaming service and the Warner Bros. production studio reported a net loss of $2.1 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter after the company wrote down $1.85 billion in assets and faced nearly $1.2 billion in restructuring expenses. Revenue fell 9%, excluding the results of foreign exchange, and the company saw ad sales decrease 14% as its TV networks, even as it worked to add subscribers to its HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming outlets.

Rebel Wilson announced her engagement to partner Ramona Agruma, via an Instagram post on Sunday. The Pitch Perfect actress captioned her Instagram post, “We said YES!”, thanking Tiffany & Co. for the ring and to Bob Iger and the “incredible team at Disneyland” for pulling off this magical surprise!” In the post, the couple can be seen in front of Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty castle, wearing matching pink and white striped sweaters.   A post shared by Rebel Wilson (@rebelwilson)Wilson described meeting Agruma as a fairy-tale story, writing “I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,” she captioned the photo alongside a rainbow emoji and the hashtag ‘love is love’.The actress spoke to People Magazine last year, describing her relationship as “a bit old-school”, mentioning that the two of them had spoken on the phone for weeks prior to the meeting. “It was a bit old-school in that sense—very romantic.

Friends supporting friends. Rebel Wilson’s loved ones’ reaction to her recent engagement with fiancée Ramona Agruma is absolutely pitch perfect.

and her fiancée, . The 42-year-old Pitch Perfect star made the announcement to her 11.2 million Instagram followers on February 19 with a delightful photo of the pair mid-smooch in matching sweatshirts (pink-and-white stripes, featuring a heart). The shot was taken outside the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in California.“We said YES!” read the , along with a shout-out to Tiffany and Co.

Comedian Rebel Wilson is ready to make the ultimate commitment and proposed to her girlfriend Ramona Agruma during a trip to Disneyland in Orlando, Florida.The 42 year old thanked Disney CEO Bob Iger for helping keep the big surprise a secret in a post she shared with her 11 million Instagram followers, before paying tribute to the whole Disney Weddings team. Rebel shared a snap of the big moment which showed the happy couple being showered with baby pink petals as they posed with their rings in front of the resort’s iconic castle.Two massive bouquets can be seen on either side of the grinning pair, who are both on one knee.

Rebel Wilson has announced her engagement to partner Ramona Agruma after less than a year of dating.The Bridesmaid star revealed that she popped the question at Disneyland as she posted two snaps on Instagram to announce the joyous news. Rebel wrote in the caption: "We said YES! "Thank you @tiffanyandco for the stunning ring [diamond ring emoji] and to Bob Iger and the incredible team at Disneyland @disneyweddings for pulling off this magical surprise!" The first snap shows Ramona's gigantic Tiffany & Co.

Star Wars actor Liam Neeson has spoken out against the explosive growth of the Lucasfilm franchise, expressing the belief that it’s been damaged by the constant churning out of spin-offs.

Tatiana Siegel On Nov. 20, Disney shocked Hollywood when it announced that Bob Iger would return as CEO after less than a year away. Two days later, Disney’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” landed a coveted China release. Then, the sci-fi film received a rare release extension in China that allowed it to run through Feb. 14, enabling it to gross more than $240 million in the country.  Though Disney insiders say China’s embrace of “Avatar” was unrelated to Iger’s return, its success and a string of good fortune for the company has raised eyebrows at rival studios. That’s because after seeing its Marvel releases denied entry to China for nearly four years, Disney recently announced that “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” were being waved into the country. (“Avengers: Endgame” in 2019 was the last Disney Marvel movie to secure a release in the Middle Kingdom, earning $632 million there.) And if things seem cozier between Disney and China, there’s no missing that a recent “Simpsons” episode that took a shot at the country’s human rights record never appeared on Disney+ in Hong Kong. The episode’s infraction involved a bit where a virtual tour guide tells Marge: “Behold the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where children make smartphones.” That joke was enough for the episode to receive the boot. The “Simpsons” move represents a stark difference from Disney’s recent approach elsewhere in Asia, where it chose to forego the release of titles including “Thor” and “Lightyear” rather than cave to pressure from censors over those films’ LGBTQ characters.

Paramount is betting that new and existing subscribers to Paramount+ are big fans of Showtime. Executives touted thr integration of the streaming service and the cable television channel as a key justification for raising prices for the direct-to-consumer service’s premium tier Thursday as they discussed the media giant’s earnings.  Later this year, the top tier of Paramount+ will rise from $9.99 per month to $11.99 per month.

Only 10 episodes of The Gordita Chronicles were produced before HBO Max canceled the comedy last summer amid a pullback on live-action kids and family programming. But at least creator Claudia Forestieri felt good knowing that new viewers could still find the show on the streamer.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO content, including tentpoles such as House of The Dragon and Succession, is on the verge of moving from Indian platform Disney+ Hotstar, where it has been streaming since 2016, according to local industry sources. 

Disney shares slid into red numbers Thursday after jumping 5% earlier in the day on the news that activist investor Nelson Peltz has ended his proxy fight with the company.

Disney Entertainment, the new division run by Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, will oversee the company’s main streaming services including Disney+ as details of the company strategic restructuring emerge.

Disney CEO Bob Iger today called Marvel chairman Isaac Perlmutter’s backing of activist investor Nelson Peltz “a curious dynamic.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger said today that he’s open to selling Hulu — instead of forking over billions of dollars to buy out Comcast’s stake in the streaming platform.

Activist investor Nelson Peltz said this morning that he’s ending his proxy fight againt Disney after CEO Bob Iger announced sweeping restructuring and cost cutting plans yesterday alongside the company’s latest quarterly earnings.

Deadline reports that Disney CEO Bob Iger had good and bad news on a Q1 earnings call yesterday. The bad first: Disney initiates a $5.5 billion cost-saving plan that nixes 7,000 jobs across the entire company.

Disney CEO Bob Iger on Wednesday reaffirmed the company’s longstanding guidance to investors that its streaming business will become profitable by the end of fiscal 2024.