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※ [本文轉錄自 movie 看板 #1aQRubj3 ]

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新聞網址：

https://reurl.cc/GezzkW

THR的報導:

Disney Hit With Investor Suit Over Alleged “Cost-Shifting Scheme” In
Streaming Division

Investors take issue with former CEO Bob Chapek's optimism about Disney+'s
growth and expected profitability.

BY WINSTON CHO    MAY 15, 2023 4:45PM

Disney’s lofty subscriber growth and profitability targets for its streaming
service have drawn a lawsuit from investors who claim that the entertainment
giant misled them about the extent of its losses.

A suit filed on May 12 in California federal court accuses Disney of engaging
in a fraudulent scheme designed to hide Disney+ costs and make forecasts that
it would be profitable by 2024 believable. It takes aim at ousted CEO Bob
Chapek’s alleged “cost-shifting scheme” to first air certain shows meant
to be Disney+ originals on legacy TV networks to conceal the platform “
suffering decelerating subscriber growth, losses, and cost overruns,” the
suit says.

The suit details Disney’s pivot to prioritizing streaming amid the pandemic.
While most of the company’s businesses suffered as its theme parks, resorts
and cruise lines were shuttered and movie theaters were forced to close,
subscriptions to Disney+ rapidly took off. Against this backdrop, Chapek
decided to “go all in” on the platform, announcing a major reorganization
of the company’s media and entertainment operations. Under the new reorg,
distribution and commercialization activities were centralized into the
Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (DMED) arm, which essentially
became responsible for the monetization of all content globally. Investors
say that the reorganization represented a “dramatic departure from Disney’s
historical reporting structure and was hugely controversial within the
Company because it took power away from creative content-focused executives
and centralized it in a new reporting group” led by Chapek lieutenant Kareem
Daniel, who alongside his mentor, “exerted near complete control over the
company’s strategic decisions around content,” according to the complaint.

From December 2020 to November 2022, Chapek and Daniel repeatedly misled
investors about the success of Disney+ by concealing the true costs of the
platform and the difficulty of maintaining robust subscriber growth in
addition to claiming that it was on track to achieve profitability with 230
to 260 million paid global subscribers by the end of 2024, the suit claims.
This includes an allegedly fraudulent plan to debut certain shows that were
supposed to be Disney+ originals, including The Mysterious Benedict Society
and Doogie Kameāloha, M.D., on its TV networks, like the Disney channel.

“By doing so, a significant portion of the marketing and production costs of
the shows were shifted away from Disney+ and on to the legacy platform,”
reads the complaint.

The suit says the plan was a “motivating factor” behind the reorganization,
which was announced a month before The Mysterious Benedict Society went into
production. It also takes issues with statements from Chapek in December 2020
that touted gains. “Disney+ has exceeded our wildest expectations with 86.8
million subscribers as of December 2,” he said. “This success has bolstered
our confidence in our continued acceleration towards a DTC-first business
model.”

Chapek additionally discussed how the company’s new distribution and
commercialization team empowers creative teams to “make the high-quality
branded entertainment they believe will resonate with audiences.” The slides
that accompanied the presentation reiterated the company’s estimate Disney+
would be profitable by the end of 2024. These new forecast represented an “
astounding three-fold increase from prior estimates without any degradation
in expected profitability for the segment,” according to the complaint.

After acknowledging that subscriber growth had slowed in 2021, Disney in
November 2022 reported that it missed analyst estimates by wide margins on
revenue, sales and earnings. The company’s direct to consumer arm, which
includes Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu and Hotstar, reported an operating loss of
$1.47 billion — up from a $630 million loss in the same quarter the year
prior. Disney’s stock plummeted by more than 13 percent.

After Bob Iger returned to lead the company two weeks later, he made clear
that an important component of restoring Disney’s success would be to return
power back to creative executives, including distribution decisions. The suit
points to the statement as evidence that Chapek’s comments on his
reorganization were meant to mislead investors. It also argues that Disney’s
fiscal second quarter earnings last week, which showed that Disney+ lost
subscribers for the second quarter in a row, is further proof “confirming
that the 2024 Disney+ targets had never been achievable.”

Chapek, Daniel and CFO Christine McCarthy were named in the complaint.

“We are aware of the complaint and intend to defend vigorously against it in
court,” said Disney in a statement.

May 16, 9:34 a.m. This story has been updated with Disney’s statement to The
Hollywood Reporter.

============================================================================

非常長的報導 所以我就長話短說 能精簡就精簡 簡單說明一下就好。



簡單說，就是迪士尼的投資者要告迪士尼，

指控迪士尼用欺詐的手段，藉由把D+原創影視作品的成本用"電視播映授權費用"攤平，

誤導他們串流原創作品沒有賠錢甚至賺錢的假象。



5月12號加州聯邦法院受理了一件圖謀詐欺案件，

控訴迪士尼的串流平台試圖藉由把，

本應在D+平台首映的D+原創作品，轉到旗下電視台或子串流平台首播

讓這些電視台(例如迪士尼頻道)與串流平台(例如HULU)給付高額的授權費用給D+，

然後用這個授權費用來打平成本，

製造這些內容沒有虧錢的，讓D+將在2024年開始盈利轉正的說法變得更有說服力的假象。



控訴的投資客把矛頭直指前CEO Bob Chapek的"成本轉移計劃"，

也就是這個詐欺圖謀的主要計畫內容，

並且控訴這是在隱藏迪士尼串流平台面臨的重大問題，

包含訂閱戶流失、平台損失，以及成本失控的現象。



然後報導提到，從2020年12月到2022年11月，

Chapek跟他的副手卡林姆丹尼爾多次誤導投資者對D+的前景與營利性，

藉由隱藏平台真實支出跟隱瞞訂閱用戶的黏著程度等關鍵資訊，

誤導投資者對D+有不切實際的過分樂觀判斷，讓他們以為2024年底將會轉虧為盈。



除了這種把製作與行銷成本大量轉移到旗下電視網與子串流平台的做法之外，

Chapek還畫大餅，聲稱迪士尼的新發行與行銷團隊能支援迪士尼

"提供能與觀眾產生共鳴、高品牌價值的娛樂內容"。



最後報導以迪士尼串流平台(D+ Hulu ESPN+ Hotstar)在2022年11月的報告中，

營運損失14.7億美金，與前一年同比季度損失(6.3億美金)比，損失持續擴大作結。

同時提到迪士尼的股價慘跌13%。


==========================================================================

我其實能理解投資者的不爽

因為Chapek吹D+營利性這件事情其實發生在2020年12月

你如果看迪士尼股價就會發現，

迪士尼股價在2020年底開始迎來一波大漲潮，

導致2021年3月迎來了股價的高峰，幾乎到了200元。



也就是說這邊衝高的股價是因為公司的說明，

讓投資人對D+未來前景與營利非常樂觀導致的。



而現在迪士尼股價在哪裡呢??

91元



等於是被當韭菜腰斬了，

而如果當初的樂觀前景真的是迪士尼騙出來的，

無怪乎他們會想提告。



其實電影上迪士尼也搞了類似的東西，

例如雷神索爾4，帳面上其實是有賺錢的，



是迪士尼自己的串流平台與電視台，花大錢買迪士尼自己的電影，

這種作法讓你看到雷神索爾4有小賺，

說白了只是把虧損轉嫁到其他地方而已。



都是套路阿~~



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