What's going on?

Disney’s former CEO Bob Iger confirmed his return to the kingdom�s throne in an email sent to Disney staff late on Sunday.

What does this mean?

Bob Chepak probably didn�t realize what a hospital pass he�d been thrown when he took the reins of Disney back in February 2020. The Covid-haunted months that followed forced Disney to shut theme parks, halt blockbuster releases, and watch Netflix gallop ahead in the streaming wars while the locked-down world binge-watched Tiger King. But even given those challenges, Disney seems to think Chepak fumbled the pass, and after two and a half years of his mixed performance, the entertainment titan has handed the throne to his predecessor Iger once more.

Why should I care?

Zooming in: Striking balance at the media empire.
Disney�s gone all-in on streaming since 2019, sparing no expense to woo customers to its fledgling Disney+ platform. And with a two-hundred-million subscriber count to boast about, you�d assume the gambit hit the mark. Well, not according to shareholders: they�re worried that Disney�s golden geese, like theme parks, could get slaughtered in order to fatten streaming numbers. So with Iger returning to the helm, they�ll be hoping to see a much more even keel from now on.

Zooming out: From kings to paupers.
Disney had it easy back in the pre-streaming days: content was king and media giants called the shots, dictating their fees to cable companies with a kind of unquestionable royal power. But everything changed when Netflix appeared on the scene and started toppling old favorites from their thrones. It�s no surprise, then, that the oldies eventually jumped on the streaming bandwagon. But since life outside the cozy cable bundle can be a lot more expensive and a lot less lucrative, many old media firms are facing a pretty uncertain future right now.