新闻网址：
https://reurl.cc/GezzkW
THR的报导:
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.
============================================================================
非常长的报导 所以我就长话短说 能精简就精简 简单说明一下就好。
简单说，就是迪士尼的投资者要告迪士尼，
指控迪士尼用欺诈的手段，借由把D+原创影视作品的成本用"电视播映授权费用"摊平，
误导他们串流原创作品没有赔钱甚至赚钱的假象。
5月12号加州联邦法院受理了一件图谋诈欺案件，
控诉迪士尼的串流平台试图借由把，
本应在D+平台首映的D+原创作品，转到旗下电视台或子串流平台首播
让这些电视台(例如迪士尼频道)与串流平台(例如HULU)给付高额的授权费用给D+，
然后用这个授权费用来打平成本，
制造这些内容没有亏钱的，让D+将在2024年开始盈利转正的说法变得更有说服力的假象。
控诉的投资客把矛头直指前CEO Bob Chapek的"成本转移计划"，
也就是这个诈欺图谋的主要计画内容，
并且控诉这是在隐藏迪士尼串流平台面临的重大问题，
包含订阅户流失、平台损失，以及成本失控的现象。
然后报导提到，从2020年12月到2022年11月，
Chapek跟他的副手卡林姆丹尼尔多次误导投资者对D+的前景与营利性，
借由隐藏平台真实支出跟隐瞒订阅用户的黏着程度等关键资讯，
误导投资者对D+有不切实际的过分乐观判断，让他们以为2024年底将会转亏为盈。
除了这种把制作与行销成本大量转移到旗下电视网与子串流平台的做法之外，
Chapek还画大饼，声称迪士尼的新发行与行销团队能支援迪士尼
"提供能与观众产生共鸣、高品牌价值的娱乐内容"。
最后报导以迪士尼串流平台(D+ Hulu ESPN+ Hotstar)在2022年11月的报告中，
营运损失14.7亿美金，与前一年同比季度损失(6.3亿美金)比，损失持续扩大作结。
同时提到迪士尼的股价惨跌13%。
==========================================================================
我其实能理解投资者的不爽
因为Chapek吹D+营利性这件事情其实发生在2020年12月
你如果看迪士尼股价就会发现，
迪士尼股价在2020年底开始迎来一波大涨潮，
导致2021年3月迎来了股价的高峰，几乎到了200元。
也就是说这边冲高的股价是因为公司的说明，
让投资人对D+未来前景与营利非常乐观导致的。
而现在迪士尼股价在哪里呢??
91元
等于是被当韭菜腰斩了，
而如果当初的乐观前景真的是迪士尼骗出来的，
无怪乎他们会想提告。
其实电影上迪士尼也搞了类似的东西，
例如雷神索尔4，帐面上其实是有赚钱的，
但是如果你查细项，有大量的收入来自于串流平台与电视播映授权费用，
如果是像以前，卖电影授权给网飞，赚网飞的钱，那确实可以算是收入，
问题是现在迪士尼已经是自已作庄，
是迪士尼自己的串流平台与电视台，花大钱买迪士尼自己的电影，
这种作法让你看到雷神索尔4有小赚，
说白了只是把亏损转嫁到其他地方而已。
都是套路阿~~