458 pm ET: Jay Rasulo is about to speak at an investor conference. What do you hope he is asked?
501 pm ET: The presentation is starting with a question about what are the priorities of the company. He said that the strategy of the company hasn’t changed. Creativity, technology, and international expansion.
504 pm ET: Jay just plugged Agent Carter which premieres tonight at 8/7c on ABC.
505 pm ET: Disney Infinity 2.0 has had a strong start according to Jay.
506 pm ET: Jay is asked if they did not expand into the cable networks business because they foresaw cord-cutting. He responds by saying he still loves the cable business. 2/3 of capital expenditures is into internal businesses which includes investing in cable.
509 pm ET: The moderator asks if sports cable networks is a good place to be. Jay says that they love ESPN’s business. The inability to time-shift the programming makes it DVR-proof and good for advertisers.
515 pm ET: The next question is about Nielsen ratings. Jay said that the ratings companies don’t accurately capture where everyone watches media. Disney has been able to monetize part of the non-traditional viewership, but they are not all the way there.
519 pm ET: Disney is the only studio that doesn’t use a third-party to finance their films. Jay said this is because they feel that they don’t want to share the success of their stacked release slate with others.
520 pm ET: The next question is about the recent investment in the theme park business. Jay said they don’t invest around a business cycle. These investments are long term and were good ideas. Every idea (2 new cruise ships, DCA expansion, MyMagic+) has performed well once launched. Jay says MyMagic+ proves that bringing consumer friendly technology can improve the guest experience and they will be bringing that idea beyond at Walt Disney World.
526 pm ET: Jay is then asked if the revenue enhancements from MyMagic+ have been seen yet. Jay says that they are just beginning to see the benefit of MyMagic+. When guests pre-plan they tend to spend more days of their Orlando vacation at Walt Disney World.
537 pm ET: The next question is about how decisions are made at the Disney company. He says each of the business units are delegated to tackle the issues that face their business. He says the main group gets together at least once a week to discuss issues. Jay continues that Disney is a “state-level” company instead of a “federal-level” company because each of their businesses are different. He also says they don’t want to homogenize their businesses (i.e. Disney-fying Marvel).
543 pm ET: And that’s a wrap. See you soon!