Dive Brief:

• The Walt Disney Company on Nov. 10 extended the contract of CFO Hugh Johnston to Jan. 31, 2029 as part of an amended employment agreement, according to a securities filing. As part of the agreement, Disney increased Johnston’s target long-term equity incentive annual award value to $16.5 million, compared to the initial $14 million long-term incentive award detailed as part of his compensation for Disney’s fiscal 2024, according to company filings.
• The amended employment agreement does not increase Johnston’s annual base salary or target bonus opportunity, the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said. According to Disney’s latest proxy filed in January, Johnston’s compensation totaled $24.4 million in 2024, including a base salary of $1.6 million, a one-time signing bonus of $3 million, and stock awards of approximately $10 million.
• The contract extension for Johnston, who joined Disney in 2023 as its finance chief, comes as the entertainment company continues to butt heads with YouTube TV relating to a new content distribution agreement that saw the entertainment firm pull several channels from the video platform. The ongoing carriage dispute could be costing Disney up to $4.3 million a day, according to estimates by Morgan Stanley cited by Variety .

Dive Insight:

Johnston has served as the Burbank, California-based company’s CFO since 2023, joining after serving 15 years as the finance chief for beverage giant PepsiCo, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The contract extension was filed shortly before Disney released fourth quarter earnings Thursday, which missed revenue expectations as the company continues to grapple with challenges related to its linear TV networks and its contract battle with YouTube.  

On Oct. 30, Disney pulled channels including ESPN, ABC and the Disney Channel from the Alphabet-owned video platform after contract negotiations regarding a new content distribution agreement broke down, NBC reported at the time.

“Obviously, I’m not going to comment much on ongoing negotiations that are live right now,” Johnston said Thursday during the company’s latest earnings call in response to analyst questions regarding the YouTube blackout. “The only thing I would say is in terms of our guidance, we built a hedge into that with the expectation that these discussions could go for a little while.”

“We’ve been working in good faith to negotiate a deal with Disney that pays them fairly for their content on YouTube TV,” YouTube said in an Oct. 30 statement. “Unfortunately, Disney is proposing costly economic terms that would raise prices on YouTube TV customers and give our customers fewer choices, while benefiting Disney’s own live TV products — like Hulu + Live TV and, soon, Fubo.” 

Disney is “ready to go as long as they want to,” Johnston said of the dispute during a Thursday interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, noting the two companies remain in negotiations. Disney is “working tirelessly” to close the content distribution deal, CEO Bob Iger said Thursday during the earnings call.

“The deal that we have proposed is equal to or better than what other large distributors have already agreed to,” Iger said according to a transcript. “So we’re not trying to really break any new ground.”

For the quarter ended Sept. 27, Disney reported revenue of about $22.5 billion, essentially flat with revenue for the prior year period. The company reported Q4 income before income taxes of $2 billion, up from $900 million in Q4 2024, according to its earnings report. For the full year, income before taxes reached $12 billion compared to $7.6 billion in 2024.