Abigail Disney believes ‘there’s a moral disconnect’ at Disney

The Business

KCRW

Tv & Film

4.6 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Abigail Disney's father was Walt’s nephew Roy. He led a shareholder revolt in 2004, when he got fed up with Michael Eisner's management of the Mouse House. Abigail Disney keeps close tabs on the company and has lots to say about current management. As 32,000 theme park workers lost their jobs while top executives had their full salaries restored, Disney says, “I don’t believe the company and the magic can survive this kind of corporate behavior.”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is the business.
0:05.5	Abigail Disney's father was Walt's nephew Roy, who led a successful shareholder revolt in 2004.
0:12.9	Roy was fed up with then Disney chairman Michael Eisner's management, and Abigail helped him lead the charge.
0:19.4	She still keeps close tabs on the company that bears her family's name, and she has
0:23.7	lots to say about current management.
0:26.3	A little tiny part of me sees this as a little bit of an extension of my father's work,
0:31.1	because I don't believe the company and the magic can survive this kind of corporate behavior. I don't think that the brand,
0:41.8	as solid gold as it is, will last. In the course of the pandemic, 32,000 Disney Parks workers have
0:49.9	lost their jobs. Meanwhile, executive salaries were restored to pre-COVID levels in August.
0:57.0	In this first of a two-part interview, Abigail Disney tells us where she thinks Disney has gone wrong.
1:03.3	But first on the news banter, Hollywood may hate it, but at last you'll be able to watch
1:07.8	brand new Warner's movies on Roku. Stick around. It's the business from KCRW.
1:18.3	I am joined by my colleague in banter. Matt Bellany. Hello, Matt.
1:22.4	Hi there. So Warner Media has taken on Hollywood, as we have discussed, and this is an ongoing battle over the decision to put the entire 2021 slate on the HBO Max streaming service.
1:34.8	So they've gotten to this battle that they are now fighting with the big agencies and the Directors Guild and so on and so on.
1:41.8	However, they have won or somehow conceded to Roku and their
1:48.9	streaming service will be carried on Roku, which is a very big deal. Yeah, I mean, that's about
1:54.5	40% of the market. And, you know, this is why they incurred the wrath of all of Hollywood was to get a deal done with Roku.
2:03.6	And the best way to do that was to put undeniable content on HBO Max so that Roku's hand would be forced.
2:10.6	Wonder Woman is exactly that. The entire 2021 slate is exactly that.
2:14.6	They got this deal done. Now we're going to be able to judge HBO Max
2:19.0	as a success or failure based on the service and the content itself, not uncarriage deals.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KCRW, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KCRW and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.