{"id":21142,"date":"2025-06-28T06:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T06:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/21142\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T06:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T06:46:09","slug":"disney-co-ceo-dana-walden-brought-laughs-to-entertainment-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/21142\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Co-CEO Dana Walden Brought Laughs to Entertainment Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen the highlight of a discussion between Dana Walden<\/a> and Ken Ziffren is how to pronounce the series name 9-1-1, you know the keynote at the UCLA Entertainment Symposium is not going to be a big newsmaker. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut at least the Disney Entertainment co-chair got to show off her wry sense of humor when correcting Ziffren, who referred to the Ryan Murphy drama as \u201c9\/11\u201d when asking about Disney\/ABC franchises. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c9-1-1,\u201d she responded with a little smile. \u201cDifferent show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWalden also generated laughs when she explained how FX\u2019s John Landgraf encouraged her to filibuster during the Q&A that was part of this year\u2019s \u201cHollywood \u201925: Survive or Thrive\u201d symposium at UCLA. She really didn\u2019t have to; Ziffen had plenty of softball questions to fill the hour that covered green lighting, short-form content, O&Os, and linear ratings. Walden, who clearly recognized that her childhood friend\u2019s dad wasn\u2019t going to put her on the hot seat, answered the questions with respect and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\n\tHer responses in a nutshell: Generally, she lets her brand leaders give the green lights, though she will get involved on big ticket items like Shogun. Why yes! Disney creates more than 30,000 pieces of short-form content a year to help with marketing. She\u2019s totally cool with their owned and operated footprint that covers 22% of the country. Sure, a Nielsen report recently said that streaming is getting more views these days than broadcast, but it\u2019s July, man. Just wait until the NFL comes back. And bundling \u2014 be it soft or hard \u2014 is a successful strategy for Disney!<\/p>\n

\n\tZiffen did make a half-hearted attempt to get a headline out of Walden by asking her to predict the future of consolidation, but she kept her answer controversy-free. \u201cI don\u2019t think that would be a crazy prediction,\u201d she responded, before adding, \u201cI\u2019m more focused on opportunities for us right now \u2026 I would say now, for us, the best possible content, widest possible distribution, partnerships that are meaningful and make sense to our consumers, those are things we\u2019re thinking about. \u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe did get a few chances to boast about the company\u2019s successes, like its 60 Emmy wins last year and how High Potential has been viewed by 40 million people over the company\u2019s multiple platforms. And she got personal, albeit briefly, by sharing how she really enjoyed Adolescence and The White Lotus.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it came time to find out about her mentors, Ziffren gave Walden an out by saying she didn\u2019t have to mention Bob Iger. She did, anyway. \u201cI\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t say what an extraordinary privilege it has been to work with him,\u201d she said. \u201cHe is just formidable and cares so much about the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the highlight of a discussion between Dana Walden and Ken Ziffren is how to pronounce the series…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[19552,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-21142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dana-walden","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114759649582102686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}