 | |
| Formerly | Walt Disney Telecommunications (1981–2004) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Entertainment,cable andsatellite television |
| Founded | November 9, 1981; 44 years ago (1981-11-09) |
| Founders |
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| Defunct | October 12, 2020; 5 years ago (2020-10-12) |
| Fate | Assets split up |
| Successors |
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| Headquarters | 91505 S Buena Vista St,, United States |
Key people |
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| Brands | |
| Parent | The Walt Disney Company |
| Subsidiaries | |
Disney Media Networks was a business segment ofthe Walt Disney Company that oversaw the company's television networks,cable channels, televisionproduction and distribution studios, andowned-and-operated television stations. The segment's primary divisions wereWalt Disney Television (first andsecond incarnations) andA&E Networks (50% stake).[1][2]
In 1977,Walt Disney Productions executive Jim Jimirro brought forth an idea of a cable television network that would feature television and film material from theWalt Disney Studios.[3] Since the company was focusing on the development of theEpcot Center atWalt Disney World, Disney chairmanCard Walker turned down the proposal of the network.[4][5] Instead, they made a deal withHBO to air a select number of Disney films, cartoons, and specials, including a live production ofSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs atRadio City Music Hall. However, Disney revived the idea in November 1981 to createDisney Channel,[6] entering into a joint venture with the unit ofGroup W (which had sold its 50% ownership stake in one of The Disney Channel's early rivals,Showtime, toViacom around the same time); however, Group W would ultimately drop out of the intended partnership that September following disagreements over the channel's creative control and financial obligations that would have required Group W to pay a 50% share of the channel's start-up costs.[5]
Despite losing Group W as a partner, The Disney Channel continued on with its development – now solely under the oversight of Walt Disney Productions, and under the leadership of the channel's first presidentAlan Wagner, Walt Disney Productions formally announced the launch of its family-friendly cable channel in 1983. Disney later invested United States dollar11 million to acquiring space on two transponders of theHughes Communications satelliteGalaxy 1, and spent US$20 million on purchasing and developing programming.[5] The concept of apremium service aimed at a family audience – which Walt Disney Productions would choose to develop The Disney Channel as – had first been attempted byHBO, which launched Take 2 in 1979 (the service, which was HBO's first attempt at a spin-off niche service (predatingCinemax's launch in August 1980), would shut down after only a few months on the air), and was followed by the 1981 launch of the Group W-ownedHome Theater Network (which was the only premium channel that strictly competed with The Disney Channel for that demographic for much of the 1980s, until the 1987 launch ofFestival).
Disney launched nationallyThe Disney Channel as a premium channel at 7:00 a.m.Eastern Time on April 18, 1983.[7][8] The channel – which initially kept for a 16-hour-per-day programming schedule from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 pm. Eastern andPacific Time – would become available on cable providers in all 50 U.S. states by September 1983, and accrue a base of more than 611,000 subscribers by December of that year.[7][9]
Disney reorganizing itself and creating two independent subsidiaries,Walt Disney Pictures for the movies andWalt Disney Television for the television.[10][11][12] In 1983 Walt Disney Television was formed as theWalt Disney Pictures Television Division, the name was later shortened toWalt Disney Pictures Television in 1986 and later shortened toWalt Disney Television in 1988. Until 1983, Disney shows were aired under the banner of the parent company, then namedWalt Disney Productions until 1986.
In 1980s to 1992 Walt Disney Television was launching numerous channels in Europe with the aim of relaunching the Disney brand before the opening of theEuro Disney resort in 1992 withLe Disney Channel being launched on January 26, 1985, onFR3.[13][14]
In 1996, Disney acquiredCapital Cities/ABC Inc., and re-branded media conglomerate asDisney–ABC Television Group.[15] The assets acquired at the time included ABC Television Network Group, CC/ABC Broadcasting Group (ABC Radio Network, eight television and 21 radio stations), ABC Cable and International Broadcast Group, CC/ABC Publishing Group and CC/ABC Multimedia Group to the fold. The Cable and International Broadcast Group contained ownership shares ofESPN, Inc. (80%),A&E Television Networks (37.5%),Lifetime Television (50%) and its international investments. These investments includedTele-München (50%, Germany; included 20% ofRTL II), Hamster Productions. (33%, France) andScandinavian Broadcasting System (23%, Luxembourg). ESPN also had international holdings:Eurosport (33.3%, England), TV Sport (10%, France;Eurosport affiliate) and The Japan Sports Channel (20%). The Publishing Group includingFairchild Publications,Chilton Publications, multiple newspapers from a dozen dailies (including theFt. Worth Star-Telegram, TheKansas City Star) and more weeklies, and dozens more publications in the fields of farm, business and law trade journals plus LA Magazine toInstitutional Investor. The Multimedia Group pursued businesses in new and emerging media technologies, including theinteractive television,pay-per-view,VOD,HDTV,video cassette,Optical disc, on-line services and location-based entertainment.[16]
In 1997,Disney/ABC Cable Networks teamed with one of the minority partners of the network withComcast to buy the channel after Time-Warner had exercised their put agreement.[17] Comcast increased the ownership stakes in the network through mergers with forerunners of TCI and Continental under various circumstances. In November 2006, Disney sold their 39.5% share of E! to Comcast for $1.23 billion to gain full ownership of the network as part of a broader programming carriage agreement between Disney/ABC and Comcast.[18]
ABC Group chairmanRobert A. Iger was named president and chief operating officer ofThe Walt Disney Company in January 2000.[19] In 2000, with an investment byBain Capital andChase Capital Partners, Heyward re-purchased DIC Enterprises.[20]
On April 30, 2000, following a dispute between Disney andTime Warner Cable forced WTVD off cable systems within the Raleigh–Durham–Fayetteville market for over 24 hours during the May sweeps period. Other ABC stations in markets served by Time Warner Cable, such asNew York City,Los Angeles andHouston, were also affected by the outage as well before the FCC forced TWC to restore service to those areas on May 2.[21] On October 24, 2001, Disney acquired Fox Family Worldwide for $2.9 billion cash with $2.3 billion in debt assumption, which gave Disney control of the Fox Family channel (which, owing to its new ownership, was renamedABC Family, and its parent company renamedABC Family Worldwide), the Saban Entertainment library, the Fox Kids networks in Latin America and Europe, as well as additional cable rights toMajor League Baseball that were assigned to Fox Family via theFox Sports division, which included a slate of Thursday-night regular season games, andDivision Series games.[22] In June 2000, Disney sold its 33% stake in Eurosport for $155 million to TF1.
In January 2004, Disney and Fox Kids Europe, Fox Kids Latin America launched a new joint brand for their children's television operations,Jetix, which would be used to brand programming blocks which aired on ABC Family and Toon Disney, its television channels in Europe and Latin America, along with its program library and merchandising.[23][24][25][26]
OnApril 21, 2004,[27] Disney announced a restructuring of the division withAnne Sweeney being named president of ABC parent Disney–ABC, and ESPN presidentGeorge Bodenheimer becoming co-CEO of the division with Sweeney, as well as president of ABC Sports. This move added ABC TV Network within Disney-ABC.[28]ABC1 channel initially launched in the United Kingdom onSeptember 27, 2004 as the first use of the ABC brand outside the US.[29] WhileABC News Now was launched that year in the US on digital subchannel of 70ABC owned & operated and affiliates.[30]
In November 2006, Disney's 39.5% share of E! to Comcast for $1.23 billion to giving full ownership of the network as part of a broader programming carriage agreement between Disney and Comcast.[18]
On June 12, 2007, Disney spun off itsABC Radio Networks and merged it into Citadel Communications withCitadel Broadcasting while retaining itsESPN Radio andRadio Disney networks and stations and a 10-year news provider licensing agreement with Citadel forABC News Radio and the networks.[31][32]
On December 8, 2008, Disney made an agreement to increase ownership in Jetix Europe to 96%, with intentions to purchase the remainder and have Jetix Europe delisted from theEuronext Amsterdam exchange.[33]
On December 16, 2008, Disney established a joint venture in Russia with Media One to create a network of 30 channels.[34] On February 20, 2009, the Russian anti-monopoly commission blocked Disney of acquiring 49% of the Russian group Media One and then Catalpa Investments a Russian subsidiary of Disney sought the approval of the commission for the acquisition of 49% of the new company MO-TV Holdings, which gave the opportunity to hold the Russian television group Media One, which made Disney to launch aDisney Channel in Russia.
On January 22, 2009, Disney–ABC said it would mergeABC Entertainment andABC Studios into a new unit called ABC Entertainment Group.[35][36] That April, ABC Enterprises took an ownership stake inHulu in exchange for online distribution license and $25 million in the ABC network ad credits.[37] TheLive Well Network (LWN) was launched on April 27, 2009, byABC Owned Television Stations on the stations' subchannels.[38][39][40] Later that year,A+E Networks acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services with DATG ownership increasing to 42%.[41] In November, Disney-ABC sellsGMTV to ITV for $37 million.[42]
In July 2012,NBCUniversal confirmed plans to sell its 15.8% stake in A+E Networks to Disney for $3 billion (along with its previous ownerHearst Entertainment & Syndication, who became 50-50 partners in the joint venture).[43][44]
On August 21, 2013, Disney–ABC announced it will lay off 175 employees. The layoffs are expected to hit positions among technical operations as well as the unit's eight local stations.[45]
In August 2014, A+E took a 10% stake inVice Media for $250 million, then announced in April 2015 thatH2 would be rebranded into the Vice channel with an indicated early 2016 launch.[46] Disney also directly made two $200 investments in Vice Media in November 2015, then a week later in December, they directly invested in it again for 10% to assist in funding its programming.[47] ABC Family becameFreeform on January 12, 2016.[48]
In September 2016, the group's presidentBen Sherwood named Bruce Rosenblum, Television Academy chairman and former head of Warner Bros. TV Group, as president of business operations in s the newly created position, to reduce the number of direct reports from 17 to about 8. Roseblum would oversee ad sales in conjunction with channel heads, affiliate sales and marketing, engineering, digital media, global distribution, IT, research and strategy and business development. This allows Sherwood to focus on content and direct operating units that continue to directly report to him, ABC network units, cable channel units (Disney Channels Worldwide, and Freeform), ABC Studios and ABC TV Stations.[49]
On October 8, 2018, Disney announced during itsacquisition of21st Century Fox assets that Peter Rice, then-CEO and president ofFox Networks Group, would serve as the chairman and president of the second incarnation of Walt Disney Television (nowDisney General Entertainment Content). Rice would also replace Ben Sherwood, who is scheduled to leave his post as co-chair of Disney Media Networks. Fox TV Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden would be named chairman, Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment. Within Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment, Walden would oversee 20th Century Fox Television and ABC Studios, plus ABC, Freeform and ABC's owned-and-operated television stations. FX Networks and National Geographic Partners would transfer over as is and report to President of Walt Disney Television.[2]
On October 12, 2020, the assets were restructured and transferred toDisney Media and Entertainment Distribution,Disney General Entertainment Content and ESPN and Sports Content (later known as simplyESPN Inc.), effectively dissolving Disney Media Networks. The name would however be referenced numerous times in news sources about Disney's future restructurings and reorganizations post-2020.
TV channels
Production studios
| Division | Studio |
|---|---|
| Disney Branded Television | Disney Television Animation |
| It's a Laugh Productions | |
| Disney Television Studios | ABC Signature |
| 20th Television | |
| 20th Television Animation[50] | |
| Walt Disney Television Alternative[51] | |
| Hulu Originals[52][53] | |
| FX Productions (joint with FX Networks) | |
| A&E Networks | A+E Studios
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