Posted in: ABC, CW, Disney+, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: ABC, disney, freeform, fx, Nexstar, the cw

Disney: "No Decision" Has Been Made About ABC Sale "At This Time"

The Walt Disney Company looked to dial down down the rumblings that it was in early talks to sell ABC network and television stations.

Remember back in July when The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger came close to replacing Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav as SAG-AFTRA & the WGA's poster child for "corporate greed" when he referred to the unions' negotiation proposals as not "realistic" during an interview with CNBC? As that was sucking up all of the oxygen in the room headline-wise, what didn't get much coverage was what Iger also had to say about the future of The Mouse's linear television properties – ABC, FX, Disney Channel, Freeform, and others. Revealing that the company needed to be "open-minded and objective about the future of those businesses," Iger added that those properties "may not be core" to Disney's future business plans – especially in the "wild, wild west" days of streaming.

Okay, got all of that? Good, because that brings us to today – with The Mouse pushing back on reports that the company has entered into early discussions to sell its ABC network and television stations. "While we are open to considering a variety of strategic options for our linear businesses, at this time, The Walt Disney Company has made no decision with respect to the divestiture of ABC or any other property, and any report to that effect is unfounded," read the statement released by Disney on the matter. Rumblings began to grow after Tom Carter, a former Nexstar executive & senior advisor to CEO Perry Sook & the company's board of directors, shared at a recent conference how the company (the new owners of The CW) could purchase the Disney stations with "little friction" and teased that there might be a chance to do just that "depending on how things fall out."

"It's very disturbing to me. We've talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges we're facing; the recovery from COVID, which is ongoing, it's not completely back. This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption," Iger offered CNBC's David Faber back in July during the Thursday morning edition of CNBC's Squawk Box from Idaho's Sun Valley Conference. "I understand any labor organization's desire to work on behalf of its members to get the most compensation and be compensated fairly based on the value that they deliver. We managed, as an industry, to negotiate a very good deal with the directors guild that reflects the value that the directors contribute to this great business. We wanted to do the same thing with the writers, and we'd like to do the same thing with the actors. There's a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic. And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive."

Iger went on to say that although he understands the unions looking for "as much as they possibly can in compensation for their people," he believes that writers and actors must "be realistic about the business environment, and what this business can deliver." The Disney CEO continued, "It will have a very, very damaging effect on the whole business, and unfortunately, there's huge collateral damage in the industry to people who are supportive services, and I could go on and on. It will affect the economy of different regions, even because of the sheer size of the business. It's a shame; it is really a shame."

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