Now on bbc news, bob iger has been the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company for almost 15 years. In that time, the company has bought some of the biggest media brands in the world pixar animation, marvel and lucasfilm, and most recently 21st century fox. Hes been speaking to the bbcs media editor amol rajan about his career. Who is the most powerful person in global media today . You could say is someone from a tech giants but theyd be run very close by the boss of the Walt Disney Company. Its ceo is bob iger. He has been in charge since 2005 and has pulled off some of the most audacious acquisitions in immediate history. He persuaded stevejobs to sell him pixar and bought marvel and even persuaded george lucas to sell him star wars and bought 21st century fox off Rupert Murdoch. If there is one person who understands the past present and future of media it is bob iger the disney ceo. Welcome to bbc. There is a century of heritage and sound anywhere from the beatles to adele, led zeppelin, robert plant was here couple weeks ago. What do you think . I like it, it has character, a lot of character. Bob iger, thank you for speaking to the bbc. Your book is in two halves. The first part is a memoir of your career and then it is reflections and leadership for 45 years at disney. Ill follow the same structure if thats ok. Lets start with the childhood in brooklyn and then oceanside, new york. Whats your earliest memory . Earliest memory is of watching, believe it or not, the Mickey Mouse Club on a small black and White Television set. Probably three or four years old, about the time my younger sister was born. I remember quite vividly actually. Youve been very open about the family dynamic at home. Which was largely driven by the fact that your father was manic depressive at a time when that was rather taboo. What impact did your Fathers Mental Health having family . What impact did it have on you . Well, it created a fair amount of uncertainty. I never felt unsafe. But there was a general uncertainty in the household, mostly tied to what mood he was in. In other words, we would wait for to come home from work not knowing whether he was happy dad or angry dad. And i think that uncertainty, that notion of not really knowing what was in store for the evening, we were never hit or never threatened, nothing like that. But when a parent comes home in a foul mood, it tends to affect the whole household. Were your parents very demanding of you . Did they push you hard, say youve got to be somebody . My father was very demanding that i spend my time productively. It would drive him crazy if i was doing frivolous things. I never quite challenged it and i did feel pressured by it. But looking back on it, i think it was a good thing. I think it instilled in me a hunger and a discipline that has served me extremely well in my adult years. And in my career. One of your first jobs was a weatherman. How did that come about . Totally random. I wanted to be a newscaster and took whateverjob i could get and there was a job opening at a local television station in the town i went to college in for a weatherman. And i auditioned for and got it, did not know a thing about weather. Were you any good . No, i was not very good at it and the weather wasnt very good either. At what point did you decide your future was behind the camera not the front . I practiced and worked as a weatherman for one year. About halfway through that year, i realised that my ambition to become a Big Television network anchorman in the us was probably not going to be fulfilled. And i should Start Talking about another career path. I decided i wanted to stay in television and was looking forjobs behind the camera instead of on camera. You rose through the ranks of abc, in charge of prime time entertainment, and became the president of the time the company was taken over by disney. You talk a lot in interviews and in the book about the importance of mentors, people like Roone Arledge the legendary sports and news presenter. Another mentor to you was michael eisner, the veteran ceo of disney. What was the most important thing he taught you . First of all, michael taught me about businesses i knew nothing about. I had come to thejob mostly as a Television Executive having spent most of my career in that field. But disney was obviously a very Diverse Company in terms of businesses so he taught me a lot about movies and Video Production and development. A lot about theme parks as well, a lot about managing a global brand, particularly in a world that was changing so rapidly. And he also was a perfectionist, like a few of other bosses of mine. Michael loved working things until they were great and he also believed that details mattered and was never embarrassed about getting into those details. Micromanaging. Yes, he loved to say micromanaging was underrated. When you became ceo in 2005, there was a lot of bad blood around. Disneys nephew had run this very outspoken save disney campaign. Michael eisner was a veteran ceo that you were replacing. What was the atmosphere like when you tried to cast yourself as an agent of change, despite the fact that you had worked for him for 5 years. Its hard to be an agent of change when you come from within because youre largely toeing the company line or trying to protect the status quo or following more tradition than anything else. But it was clear that in 2004 or 2005, which was when my Succession Process was under way, that the company needed a new direction, needed a change both culturally and strategically. How could you represent change if you were seen as his right hand man . It worked obviously because you got the job. I dont know that i represent change until i proved that i could change but i at least was able to articulate it and i had enough credibility with the board, at least after 15 interviews, and maybe ijust wore them down. Your time at disney has been defined by global acquisition. Your first was less than six months on the job when you addressed the problem at disney animation by buying pixar, which of course was stevejobs baby. That and two other executives. What was the board reaction when you said to them in your first move you wanted to spend a cool 7 billion on pixar. Not the way to start your career as a ceo. In the first meeting i had with the board as ceo, i raised the fact that our animation was in deep trouble and it had about a decade of mediocre performance and as i looked ahead i did not see anything in the pipeline i was particularly confident about. Nor was i confident in the then current management of disney animation. Which was such an important part of the company and always has been. And so i laid out for them not only how acute the problem was but i laid out for them potential solutions. One of them being buying pixar, but at that point, i had not gone buying pixar with stevejobs who was a controlling shareholder. I had really not spoken about it publicly at all. You put it to the board before you knew steve jobs, who by the way had a difficult relationship with your predecessor, before you knew if he was interested . I decided i would raise it and i said i thought it was a potential solution. A great solution actually. And the problem is i dont know if its for sale or ever will be and if it is, it will be extremely expensive. I dont think i even knew that it would be 7. 1; billion. I knew it was going to be in the billions. Which is not the right way to approach your beginning of your ceo tenure with the board of directors. But they clearly accepted the argument that something had to be done about animation. How did you then persuadejobs, whod had a difficult relationship with disney, to sell you pixar . I called him immediately after the board meeting. A couple of days later. Raised the notion, i called it a crazy idea. I was not as appreciative at that point about who steve was. I had a sense but had not really worked with him. When steve heard it was a crazy idea, he almost always wanted to hear it. And so i told him and that led to a discussion with him about the pros and cons of buying pixar. But i think there was a trust and there was just a basic belief that the two of us had enough in common that we could actually get stuff done. And yet half an hour before the press conference where you were going to announce this 7 billion plus dollar deal, he took you for a walk. What did he say to you . Yes, he asked me to go for a walk on the pixar campuses where we were making the pixar acquisition announcement from. And we sat on a bench and he put his arm behind me and said that he was only going to confide in me something that only his wife and his doctor knew and that was that he had had cancer. He had cancer a few years back but declared himself cured after surgery. And so the fact that steve was telling me that he had cancer was an ominous sign that not only had it returned in him but given the fact that it returned, he did not have that long to live or he wasnt really certain how long he would live. And he did that because he wanted to give me an opportunity to back out of the deal. I think he had a crisis of conscience. And felt that he owed it to me to tell me that and give me that chance, given the fact that he was going to become our largest shareholder and member of the disney board. Isnt that actually a rather disgraceful way to behave in that he left it pretty late to tell you, it was pretty late to tell you something that would have been quite useful to know sometime before. What i did discover is that he and his wife had had an argument about whether to tell me or not. Because it was such a private matter. And he had not even informed people at apple or the apple board and his children did not know. Do you miss him . I do miss him. What do you miss most about him . I miss the ability to just pick up the phone to say, i really saw something great today and i just cant wait to share it, or it was a really tough day and ive got some problems i need to solve and i need your opinion on things. Kind of a variety of things. As ceo, disney has bought pixar, marvel, lucasfilm and now fox. Thats, acquisitions, that you have done. What about the why . Why have you been in the acquisition game . Well, all three, well, now four cases are very opportunistically. We created a strategy when i became ceo and that was to invest most of our capital in high quality branded entertainment. The second prong was to use technology to bring it to the consumer in more relevant ways and use technology to make the product better. And so we were looking to invest more in that direction. Were going on a road trip. A road trip . Vacation yeehaa pixar comes first. High quality branded entertainment and use of technology to make the product better. A brand that really mattered. Marvel came next and fit right into that same strategic vision. High quality branded entertainment. Stories, great storytelling. Lucasfilm, the same thing. Its not that we had said in 2005 when i got the job, hey, lets buy pixar, marvel and star wars but we were very clear of we wanted to accomplish. What are the underlying trends re shaping the Media Industry which makes those mega acquisitions necessary . First of all, it starts with content. Content is king. People love to consume stories, movies, television shows, sporting events, you name it. And so owning and controlling a lot of it, if it is high quality cause quality is important because you have a huge proliferation of content that is being made and provided, quality stands really tall in a sea of choice. So i think more than anything, get the content. Secondly, get content that is so valuable so important so loved by consumers that they will access it or buy almost any way they possibly can. Rupert murdoch was not very happy that you bought lucasfilm. What was his reaction . Fox had distributed all of georges films. And i dont if they ever thought about asking whether hed want to sell. And i think he kicked himself, i know that he did. And he kicked his executives, right . He did. Because, why did we not ever think of that . We had a Good Relationship with george. I dont know the why but they didnt. I want to talk about your biggest acquisition, of 21st century fox which was completed last year. Why do you think Rupert Murdoch wanted to sell . Well, i think the primary reason is that he looked at what was going on in the world of media and all of the disruption and he didnt believe the hand that they had was as strong as it needed to be. It was that simple and he did not have a solution. And selling was a solution because he could get, at that time, a good price for it. And in doing so pare down the size of the business that he kept which was fox news, the fox network and a few sports channels primarily, and television stations. Run that in a way that he could manage it but not be as exposed to basically a larger business that was not large enough who initiated the conversations about a potential deal . We sat down at his winery in bel air, california. And we spoke for about an hour about the business and he spent most of the time talking about some of the things we just talked about, which was concerns he had about how his company was positioned in a changing media landscape. I left and realised that what he was really signalling me throughout the whole conversation was that he was interested i dont mean to insult you but i believe you just suggested you were interested in selling. He said yes. What was rupert like as a negotiator . I think as you would expect, he is a tough negotiator but he is true to his word, when he says yes to something, he sticks to it. Thank you plymouth and did you have an open channel with him, texting him or did you go through bankers when youre doing that level . Most of our conversations were direct. There were bankers involved on some of the details but rupert and i talked face to face oi one on one. Was it you that would told him youd go to 38 a share when comcast bid 35 . My head of Strategic Planning and mergers and acquisitions was with me and the two of us visited his offices here in london and he brought injohn, the cfo of 21st century fox and the four of us sitting around a table in his office. One acquisition that you did not make was twitter. Why . Cold feet because i thought the responsibilities if you had to take on a running twitter in terms of its position in the world and its effect on the world. I was intrigued by the opportunity for us, i thought the response would burden us with things that would be potentially too distracting, too controversial, too challenging to manage. And you got board to sign off. Youre got a long way along with research and your team says it does not work for us in terms of your content, as a platform. Is it the nastiness of twitter, is it the sort of. It has been described by a Commons Committee as a cesspit. Does not work it has been described by a Commons Committee as a cesspit. And your company is in the business ofjoy and twitter is not really in the business ofjoy, is it . Well, it is not its primary business but i think twitter creates a lot of joy. I was on before i came to this interview and saw some rather uplifting videos. And a few not so uplifting videos presumably . I saw both but i think that we all know how complex this world is today. And technology plays a big role and the complexity and in fact social media plays a big role in it. Look at what is going on in your country. And the impact of social media on politics for instance. I just thought that disneys place in the world was different and taking on some of that complexity on would take so much of our time and potentially harm the brand and the perception of the company, my ability to focus on things that were more important to disney for instance. Lets talk about the future. Youre launching in the usa a Service Called disney and youve taken a lot of disney content out of netflix for instance and have banned adverts for the likes of netflix from disney services. What is disney . Disney is a subscription Service Called over the top direct to consumer. That will feature five key brands from the Walt Disney Company, disney of course, pixar, marvel, lucasfilm and now National Geographic which is an acquisition we made with the 21st century fox merger. So it is bob iger . Yes, exactly. It will have both a significant library content, many hundreds of movies made by those branded production houses. Thousands of television shows, all library and will also have a lot of new original programming. Including the first original star wars Live Action Television series. And when are they launching in the uk . We have not announced a date for launch in the uk. Our plan is to roll out disney in most of western europe within the first year that we launch in the us. If you have got all this content and the likes of netflix have been reshaping media, why has it taken you so long to launch disney . Why not much sooner, rather than giving your content away as you did . Well, we did not give our content away, we sold at a very high price. Should you have launched a direct to consumer offer much earlier, years ago . I think it is still a nascent market is still developing even though netflix has occupied a huge market share in that market, there is still plenty of room for others and others are coming in. So im not concerned about that also get the launching of the technology right and we have enough content, and it takes time to get both of those right. Martin scorsese says of your films that the closest they can do is be like theme parks. Not the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional psychological experiences to another human being. Why is he wrong . Ouch. Did that hurt . It must hurt a bit. He is a great film maker. I hope he hears this. He is not somebody i have a relationship with but i have a great respect. I look back at goodfellas, mean streets, taxi driver. A phenomenal film maker. I think i would debate him on the subject. First of all, we are making movies at marvel that are movies. That is what he makes. And theyre good movies. He is making a commercial point, no question it is a commercial success but he is making a pretty big creative point of the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional and psychological experiences . I bet has never seen a marvel film. I imagine hes seen a few. I would question that. Anyone who has seen a marvel film cannot make that statement. Have you been in touch since those remarks . Looking forward to talking to him. I want to have a glass of wine with him. I like martin scorsese. A talented man. What about criticism that you have squeezed the marvel and star wars assets too hard and released too many movies . Marvel is doing sensationally well. The last film released had the highest box office in the history of the Motion Picture business. And the pipeline is very rich with new stories and new characters and new adventures and new superhero exploits and etc and so on. So not true. I have said publicly that i think we made at least too many Star Wars Films over a short period of time. I did not say that they were disappointing in any way and have not said that im disappointed in the performance. I just think that theres something so special about a Star Wars Film and less is more. I want to finish bringing it back to you and the lessons about your own character leadership that you mentioned in the book. You quit the Business Advisory council after President Trump withdrew the us from the paris accord, saying it was a matter of principle. Why do you think is important for a ceo to have principles which apply to all staff . I need to clarify those actions or the statements on my part. First of all, when i take a position that is viewed in some form or another as political in nature, because i have been the ceo of disney as long as i have and because when i speak publicly people tend to believe it is coming from the disney guy and notjust from bob iger, i try to say things and take positions that are relevant to the company and the health of the company. So when it came to the climate accord, i happen to believe that the earth is imperilled and that we as citizens of the world have to do something about it. And thinking about it from a business perspective, you cannot run a Successful Company in a world that is not environmentally healthy. People will not go to theme parks if they cant breathe the air. So i took a position on that with great conviction because of what it meant to disney. And what about the principle about doing business in china . A lot of your most recent tenure has been based in china. Do you have qualms about doing business in places with an appalling record on human rights . We do business around the world. And many places where the policies and politics of the territory dont necessarily align with those of the United States. And disney does not take positions on those things. It is just not who we are. We look at the world as a great opportunity and china is a market that has served us extremely well over time and it is not for us to weigh in on local policy or local culture or local condition. On the question of your president ial ambition, you often said that the reason you decided against it was your wife was rather sceptical about it. Is it not the real reason that politics is fantastically hard and that to have run for president but to not be successful would have been a rather ignominious end for your otherwise illustrious career . I did not look at it that way. When i considered running for president , i considered for one reason and that was how much i care about the country that i grew up in and have worked in all my life and has served me and my family extremely well. And it was my desire to. To see a future for the United States that was as positive as the future that i saw when i was growing up that would have led me to make the sacrifice required to run. But there were other reasons for me not running. Here is another question that youve have been asked many times before. Ill put it another way. Youre paid a lot of money and the board would say that you are worth it because of disneys success and growth under the leadership and they want more of it. But i sense your work for the company is deeper than money. Would you admit now that youre paid more than is necessary to get you out of bed in the morning . I have no reason to make any comment whatsoever about my compensation. I love what i do. I have worked for this company for 45 years. I have been the president and coo or chairman and ceo for 20 years. And have given a good part of my life to it and i do not have any reason to comment on what i have been compensated or in any way to defend it. One of the broader questions you may have addressed if you had run for president when you did not which is whether or not we are at this Inflection Point where western capitalism is under huge strain and people would say that it would be greater strain if there is a big difference between the guy who runs a company and for instance the guys who were cleaning off the desks at your theme parks . Yeah, what is the question . Im not asking you because it is boring or tired to ask you whether you are worth your salary but im asking what you think it does for american capitalism when there is a big differential between the guy at the top and the guy at the bottom. I am proud of our efforts for our employees or cast Members Around the world. Which are now about 230,000. There are tens of thousands more today than there were when i got the job. So we have created a huge amount ofjobs. And for hourly workers, the people that maybe youre talking about. I am proud of their compensation and im proud of the benefits that we have bestowed upon them and proud of the opportunities we have created for them because there has been huge upward mobility in our company. By the very people that started at the bottom and im one of them. And enable himself to not only worked their way up but to work the way up and earn more. As you look back on 45 years in the media, if you addressed a 23 year old bob iger starting out, what do you know now that you wish you had known then . Well, it will be nice to know that it is going to turn out as well as it has because i probably wouldve been a little bit more relaxed but then again if i had been a little more relaxed, i probably would not of works as hard and might not i probably would not have worked as hard and might not have turned out. Because you can go back and do it over in anyway, i would not change a thing. Bob iger, ceo of the Disney Company and author of ride of a lifetime, thank you very much indeed for your time. Youre welcome. Persistent rain that affected part of the uk on thursday have left us with flooding problems again. While there is more rain to come through there is more rain to come through the day ahead i am hopeful that much of it will be light and patchy. Certainly it cloudy and to for much of england and wales with more persistent rain into east anglia in the south east. The file and could hit a icy start and then some sunshine. Sunshine and showers for scotland, most fizzling away but we will see some showers feasting into eastern and southern scotland. Still Single Digits but not as chilly as it has been with the breeze will start to ease as we go into the early pa rt start to ease as we go into the early part of saturday. Still some outbreaks of rain at times. As for the clear spells in northern scotland, dense patches to take Centre Saturday morning. The weekend will bring more rain at times but not all the time. Welcome to bbc news my names mike embley our top stories investigators looking into the downing of flight mhi7 over ukraine say russian officials directed the rebels linked to the attack. Now democrats are focusing part of their impeachment case against President Trump on a simple allegation of bribery. The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a Public Statement of a fake investigation. 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