Friday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

Bob Iger lands $46m pay ahead of exit

The Walt Disney Company paid chief exec Bob Iger $45.8m in 2025, a rise of 12% on the previous year.

The bumper pay packet - made up of $1m basic pay plus a $7m bonus and $35m in shares and options - was outlined by Disney’s chairman James Gorman, who also confirmed that the company aims to name its next chief exec in “early 2026”, ahead of Iger’s planned exit at the end of the year.

In a letter to shareholders, the company said it was in the midst of undertaking “a rigorous and ongoing evaluation of potential successor candidates” ahead of Iger’s imminent departure.

Disney Experiences chief Josh D’Amaro and Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment, are frontrunners for the top job, with reports suggesting a co-chief exec set-up could be created to accommodate both.

US TikTok joint venture details revealed

TikTok has unveiled details behind the US joint venture designed to keep the video sharing app in operation Stateside.

Chinese parent company ByteDance will retain a 19.9% stake in the new US owner of TikTok, which is being created to assuage security concerns voiced by president Donald Trump, among others.

Other partners include: US investment firm Silver Lake; Larry Ellison’s Oracle; Dell Family Office (representing the computer billionaire Michael Dell), and; UAE-based investors MGX holding 15% apiece.

The TikTok JV will operate independently in the US and is being overseen by its investors, with Americans a majority on the board. Adam Presser, a TikTok and former Warner Media exec, has been named chief exec at the company, which also revealed it has 200 million US users.

Atresmedia Int’l names new chief

Spain’s Atresmedia Internacional has named Orestes Aja as its new director, replacing the long-standing Mar Martínez-Raposo.

Aja was most recently head of digital and streaming for the international division of Spanish broadcaster Atresmedia and is tasked with expanding the Atresplayer streamer, as well as its pay TV operations.

Martínez-Raposo has been with the company for more than three decades but will start a handover process over the coming months.

MIP London lines up Snap, Spotify sessions

February’s MIP London event will offer an expanded focus on the creator economy, with senior execs from Spotify and Snap among the line-up.

Snap Inc’s Julie Boegart, head of creator partnerships for EMEA, will join Spotify’s European podcast chief Saruul Krause-Jentsch and Tobias Schwiek of talent agency We Are Era to discuss how IP can be scaled.

The creator focus, which runs on 23 and 24 February, will also explore how digital content is commissioned and scaled, with MTV Entertainment exec Amie Parker-Williams among speakers.

Structured networking events and an expert-led roundtable session will also feature, the latter featuring execs from BBC Talentworks, Patreon, and After Party Studios. Analyst Evan Shapiro will also keynote at the event.

BBC doc lands Oscar nom

BBC Storyville co-production Mr Nobody Against Putin has been nominated for a best documentary at this year’s Oscars.

The Danish-Czech film focuses on Russian teacher Pavel “Pasha” Talankin who secretly documents pro-Kremlin propaganda as his school becomes a war recruitment centre for the Ukraine invasion. Talankin, who fled Russia in 2024, co-directed the film with David Borenstein.

The doc is from Danish production company Made in Copenhagen with co-production partners BBC Storyville and ZDF in collaboration with Arte. Storyville’s commissioning editor and exec producer is Lucie Kon.

Also nominated in the Best Documentary category are The Alabama Solution (HBO Documentary Films, HBO), Come See Me In the Good Light (Amplify Pictures and Tripod Media, Apple TV+), Cutting Through Rocks (Gandom Films Production) and The Perfect Neighbor (Message Pictures, Park Pictures and SO’B Productions, Netflix).