Parks, experiences and products head Josh D’Amaro to take over
Disney has named Disney parks, experiences and products head Josh D’Amaro as chief executive, taking over from Bob Iger.
Long talked up as the frontrunner for the role, D’Amaro has been with the company since 1998, and was named chair of Disney Experiences since 2020.
He oversees Disney Parks’ estate of 12 parks and 57 resort hotels and heads up the construction of a new Abu Dhabi theme park. He also leads Disney Consumer Products and Walt Disney Imagineering and the Disney Signature Experiences, which includes the Disney Cruise Line.
D’Amaro’s division is the star of the Disney portfolio and this week posted quarterly revenues in excess of $10bn (£7.3bn) for the first time.
Iger yesterday revealed that Disney+ delivered its parent company 11% revenue growth in Q1 to $5.3bn (£3.9bn) over the period, comprising $4.4bn (£3.2bn) in subscription fees and $922m (£675m) in advertising and other revenue. Profit reached $450m (£329m), a 72% climb year-on-year and is projected to reach $500m (£366m) in the second quarter.
Disney has stopped reporting subscriber numbers, though the company noted membership continued to climb.
Iger said he saw “encouraging results from investment in local content”, without giving specifics.
He said he expected Hulu to be fully integrated into Disney+ by the end of 2026, adding that customers would still be able to subscribe to Disney+ and Hulu separately. Companies like bundles because they produce less customer churn, he said on the earnings call.
In one negative, the company’s sports division lost $110m (£80m) due to a 15-day carriage dispute with YouTube that created a blackout of ABC, ESPN and other Disney-owned channels.
Acquisitions
Asked by an analyst for his thoughts on acquiring more properties, Iger said: “If anything, the battle for control of Warner Bros Discovery should emphasise or cause investors to appreciate the tremendous value of our assets, particularly our IP.”
He continued: “We have a great hand. I don’t really feel that we have a need to buy more IP; we’re just going to continue to create our own, and we have an unbelievable bedrock of stories already told to grow from.”
Iger said Disney’s $71.3bn (£52bn) acquisition of the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox in 2019, was “ahead of its time” and “extremely well-priced considering what’s being offered for the Warner Bros Discovery assets”. Disney’s IP acquisitions under Iger include Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm.
Open AI deal
Regarding Disney’s three-year licencing deal with Open AI, announced late last year, Iger said users will be able to prompt the text-to-video app Sora app to create 30-second videos of approximately 250 Disney characters “that do not include human voices or faces”.
Disney will curate the videos on Disney+ and Iger said the deal gives the company the ability to jump-start short-form video on the platform.
“We view AI as having a number of advantages,” he said, adding that the first batch of videos would likely appear in fiscal year 2026 and there were no immediate plans to increase the running time. “One is as a tool to help the creative process. Another is productivity, which is being more efficient. The third is creating a more intimate relationship with the consumer.”
Iger added: “The good news is the company is in much better shape today than it was three years ago [Iger returned as CEO in November 2022] because we’ve done a lot of fixing.”
He added that his successor “will be handed a good hand in terms of the strength of the company”.
A version of this story first appeared on our sister title Screen Daily
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