Guess who’s back, back again? Iger’s back. Tell a friend.

That’s right, Bob Iger is back in charge of Disney now, a Sunday night revelation that seemingly came out of nowhere, though it follows a disappointing earnings report less than two weeks ago.

Disney’s board of directors confirmed in a statement that Iger, who was CEO from 2005 to 2020, is getting his Tom Brady on “with a mandate from the Board to set the strategic direction for renewed growth.”

The unretired Iger will face key decisions, including how aggressively to pursue NFL Sunday Ticket and upcoming rights negotiations with the NBA.

Bob Chapek, who replaced Iger in February 2020, has stepped down.

• Iger led the transition toward direct-to-consumer streaming services ESPN+ and Disney+ amid falling cable subscriber numbers.
• ESPN landed the exclusive rights to stream UFC — including pay-per-view events — just months after ESPN+ launched in 2018.
• With 24.3 million subscribers as of Oct. 1, ESPN+ has become a bright spot for Disney as theme parks and other media properties lag.

Disney’s stock tumbled 41.4% from the start of the year to market close on Friday.

The ESPN Question

Iger resisted spinning off ESPN in the latter years of his prior run as CEO. Chapek talked up the value of live sports, although Puck reported he spoke with some other Disney execs about selling off ESPN.

Activist investor Dan Loeb, CEO of Third Point Capital, pushed for Disney to spin off ESPN, but softened his stance in September, shortly after Chapek said he had big plans for the network.

Red Bull and Max Verstappen capped off the Formula 1 season as the dominant forces in the sport, but it’s unclear how long they’ll be able to hold that position.

The team and Verstappen secured the constructor’s and driver’s championships long before Verstappen’s victory at the season’s final race on Sunday in Abu Dhabi.

• With two consecutive driver’s championships, Verstappen is making good on his massive contract, which pays him a reported $55 million annually through 2028.
• His $48 million in earnings over the 12 months ending May 1, made him the 26th-highest-paid athlete in the world, second among drivers to Lewis Hamilton’s $65 million, according to Forbes.
• In May, Red Bull signed his teammate Sergio Perez to a two-year extension through 2024. Perez fell to third in the driver’s championship to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished second in Abu Dhabi.

While Red Bull ended Mercedes’ streak of eight consecutive constructor’s championships, it will face new challenges in building its own streak.

Tightening Competition

The cost cap, introduced last year, will drop to $135 million for the 2023-25 seasons, creating parity among teams’ financial power. Red Bull will be docked 10% of its wind tunnel testing time and $7 million for exceeding last year’s cost cap.

Teams are also looking at new engine and fuel regulations beginning in 2026.

“By ’26, we will be four years into the cost cap, and the teams will have had more time to balance, and the racing will be even more exciting,” Williams Racing principal Jost Capito told Front Office Sports.

Four of the world’s five highest-paid soccer players are competing in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The 64-match tournament kicked off Sunday with Ecuador’s 2-0 win over Qatar.

France’s Kylian Mbappé is the World Cup’s — and the world’s — highest-paid soccer player. The 23-year-old made $128 million in the past year, with $110 million from playing, according to Forbes.

• Mbappé won three of the last four Ligue 1 Player of the Year Awards.
• Four years ago, he led France to its first World Cup title since 1998.
• France plays its first game on Tuesday vs. Australia.

Second on both lists is Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who made $120 million this year, with $55 million off the pitch. That figure could reportedly grow as much as 20% if Argentina, whose first game is on Tuesday, wins the World Cup — in what may be the last attempt of Messi’s career.

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo sits at third, with $100 million in annual earnings. He is the world’s highest-paid player in off-field earnings at $60 million. Brazil’s Neymar Jr. is fourth with $87 million in earnings. Portugal and Brazil’s first games are on Thursday.

Final Fifth

The world’s fifth- and sixth-highest-paid soccer players —  Mohamed Salah ($53 million) and Erling Haaland ($39 million) — aren’t playing in the tournament, which puts Poland’s Robert Lewandowski next up in the tournament’s rankings.

Lewandowski makes $35 million, with $27 million in on-field earnings. Poland first takes the pitch on Tuesday against Mexico.

The race is still on to acquire NFL Sunday Ticket rights in a record-breaking deal.

Sunday Ticket — which has been on DirecTV since 1994 and allows subscribers to watch every NFL game on Sundays regardless of their home market — will be up for grabs after this season.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in July that a decision on who will acquire Sunday Ticket would be made by this fall, but the league has yet to receive a bid it deems reasonable.

• DirecTV is paying $1.5 billion this season for rights to Sunday Ticket.
• The NFL has vowed to sell Sunday Ticket rights to a streaming service.
• Apple, Disney, Amazon, and Google are all in contention to acquire Sunday Ticket.
• A deal could cost up to $3 billion annually.

Sunday Ticket could potentially be sold in a package deal with NFL Media. The NFL is looking to offload a stake in the media arm, which includes NFL Network, NFL RedZone, and NFL.com.

DirecTV Issues 

Earlier in the NFL season, DirecTV experienced outages on its Sunday Ticket broadcasts for two consecutive weeks. Week 2 of the NFL season saw Sunday Ticket unavailable for nearly 90 minutes, which caused DirecTV to issue prorated refunds to customers.

Sunday Ticket on DirecTV costs close to $300 for the 2022 NFL season; a Sunday Ticket Max option that includes NFL RedZone goes for near $400.