Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Divisions

Studio Entertainment

Disney's original (and, until 1955, only) business is motion picture production. Disney Studio Entertainment, also known as the Walt Disney Studios, includes Disney's movie and animation studios, record labels and Broadway-style stage shows. Since 2002 it has been headed by chairman Dick Cook.

Parks and Resorts

In addition to the well-known theme parks and resorts, this division includes Disney Regional Entertainment (which operates the ESPN Zone sports-themed restaurants), Walt Disney Imagineering, and Walt Disney Creative Entertainment. Previously, "Anaheim Sports, Inc." was also within this division. Anaheim Sports operated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hockey club (sold in 2005 to Broadcom executive Henry Samueli) and the Anaheim Angels baseball team (sold to advertising magnate Arturo Moreno in 2003).

Media Networks

Its Media Networks unit is centered around the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network, which it acquired through a merger with Capital Cities/ABC in 1996.

Disney also owns a group of cable networks including: The Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, the ESPN group, and SOAPnet. Disney also holds substantial interest in Lifetime (50%), A&E (37.5%), E! (40%, recently sold to Comcast) and Jetix Europe N.V. (74%).

Through ABC, Disney also owns 10 local television stations, 26 local radio stations, and ESPN Radio, Radio Disney, and the ABC Radio (to be sold with another properties to Citadel Broadcasting, which carries such radio personalities as Sean Hannity and Paul Harvey and distributes news bulletins by ABC News). Buena Vista Television, which also is a part of the Media Networks unit, produces such syndicated television programs as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Live with Regis and Kelly, and Ebert & Roeper.

Disney also operates its Hyperion publishing company and Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) through Media Networks. Hyperion has recently published books by comedian-author Steve Martin and bestselling author Mitch Albom. WDIG includes the Go.com web portal, based on the old Infoseek search engine which it purchased in 1998, and leading websites such as Disney.com, ESPN.com, ABCNews.com and Movies.com.

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