Bob Iger Talks Disney+, Netflix, Twitter, Elon Musk and Extra at Recode Convention

Bob Iger shared a pessimistic outlook on the way forward for films and conventional TV in an interview Wednesday on the Code Convention in Los Angeles. 

The previous Disney CEO was, nonetheless, notably bullish on the rising variety of streaming providers embracing Madison Avenue, together with Disney+, however predicted that not all the present market entrants would survive in the long run. 

“Promoting will thrive within the streaming world,” Iger informed moderator Kara Swisher from the stage on the Beverly Hilton. “I feel what Netflix goes to do in promoting, what Disney introduced, these are sensible strikes as a result of it’s going to provide customers selection.” 

Iger took a dim view of the film enterprise in theaters, making clear that he doesn’t suppose “films ever return when it comes to going to the extent they had been at pre-pandemic.”

He went as far as to say that the success of massive streaming reveals like “Home of the Dragon” and “The Mandalorian” has led him to rethink a few of the standard knowledge he used to imagine as true.

“The film business used to argue that you simply couldn’t create cultural influence with out individuals going to the movie show across the globe that very same weekend,” he stated. “I don’t agree anymore. I most likely made that argument in some unspecified time in the future.”

One other notion he was pressured to rethink, he admitted, was the prospects for Apple TV+ to succeed as shortly because it has. “I used to be on the board of Apple once they determined to enter the streaming enterprise of tv and flicks,” he stated. “I believed it could take a very long time. They’ve completed higher than I anticipated them to do as a result of it wasn’t a enterprise they had been in in any respect.”

Iger stated he was nonetheless bullish on Disney as a result of the corporate had leaned exhausting into streaming and its dependence on the quickly declining conventional media companies was buffered by its success with theme parks. He was much less sanguine concerning the fortunes of different unnamed conglomerates who weren’t as diversified. “Should you’re simply within the channels enterprise, you will have a world of damage,” stated Iger. 

Iger was not requested, nor did he touch upon, the reported tensions between himself and his successor, Bob Chapek. 

Iger stated he spends most of his time in retirement advising a collection of startup corporations through which he’s invested and dealing on a sequel to his first guide, which is due in 2024. He batted down any suggestion that he’s all in favour of operating for any political workplace and even sitting on the boards of any main corporations. 

Iger was pressed concerning the circumstances surrounding his ascendance to CEO at Disney in late 2004 and early 2005. He disputed the characterization that his predecessor — former Disney CEO Michael Eisner — “kneecapped” him on the way in which to the highest job. He famous he at the moment has a very good relationship with Eisner. 

Iger recounted Disney’s flirtation with shopping for Twitter in 2017, a possible deal he characterised as coming very near coming collectively till he had last-minute reservations concerning the incivility and hate speech he noticed as rampant on that social platform. In a remark that echoed the present controversy surrounding billionaire Elon Musk’s pursuit of Twitter and the prevalence of bots on the platform, he famous that Disney’s evaluation of the quantity of customers on Twitter concluded {that a} “substantial portion weren’t actual,” he stated, declining to specify any percentages however making clear it was wanting being a majority. 

When Swisher pressed him on his opinion about Musk’s actions towards Twitter, he replied, “Perhaps he noticed what I noticed, he awoke and stated, ‘I can’t deal with this.’ However he doesn’t appear the sort, and I imply that in a complimentary means.”