The L.A. Times has made some bold predictions for the entertainment industry in 2004. Some of the interesting ones include:

– “The coming year will be the year that Disney finally gets serious about finding a successor to Chairman Michael Eisner”. The Times says that one likely successor could be News Corp.’s chief operating officer Peter Chernin, who has already met with a Disney board member in an earlier attempt to find Eisner’s replacement. Chernin is currently “in negotiations with Murdoch for the last four months to renew his employment contract, which expires in May. Sources say the new accord, like the old one, will allow Chernin to break the deal if it means running another entertainment giant”.

– Comcast and News Corp. “will form a direct national competitor to ESPN”. Cable companies have been complaining recently about the amount ESPN is forcing them to pay to carry the channel. A competitor (especially one founded by a cable company and the new owner of DirecTV) would force ESPN to make more concessions. The Times also says that Comcast and News Corp. could bid for NFL rights owned by ESPN. “ESPN’s NFL rights were the basis for the 20%-a-year rate increases that Disney has imposed”.

– Investors have long predicted that Comcast would eventually try to buy Disney, but “2004 will prove that there’s a more comfortable acquisition for Comcast and its conservative chief, Brian Roberts, to make: Liberty Media Corp.”, whose assets include the Discovery, Starz and QVC cable properties. This would give Comcast the “programming bulk it needs, while allowing it to avoid the headaches that would come from taking on Disney’s troubled broadcasting and theme park operations”.

– “With the release of Shrek 2, DreamWorks SKG will start transforming its animation division into a Pixar Animation Studios clone, setting the stage to take the unit public and tap into Wall Street’s love of the genre.”

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