DISNEY'S OUTLOOK ROBUST FOR 2005 IGER ISSUES REPORT AS HE SETS SIGHTS ON TOP JOB.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

BURBANK - In his first appearance before investors since being designated by Michael D. Eisner as his heir apparent, Robert A. Iger on Thursday touted a strong 2004 fiscal year for The Walt Disney Co. and a positive forecast for 2005 despite a series of hurricanes in Florida.

Iger, Disney's president and chief operating officer, said at the Merrill Lynch Media and Entertainment Conference that he expected all of Disney's divisions to grow during its next fiscal year, which begins today.

``Clearly we have a very strong outlook and the results for 2004 are sensational,'' Iger said.

While he is Eisner's choice as a successor, Iger must also become the choice of Disney's board of directors, which will hire an independent firm to conduct the search for a new CEO. Eisner announced last month that he plans to step down when his contract expires in September 2006.

From a perception standpoint, many say it is critical for Iger that Disney-owned ABC finally turn around several seasons of disastrous prime-time ratings since he is a former head of the network, which Disney bought from Capital Cities in 1996.

On Thursday, he expressed cautious optimism about ABC's prime-time ratings during the initial weeks of the new fall season. The network's new drama series ``Lost'' premiered in the top 10 and the season premiere of its reality show ``Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' finished in 12th place.

With the second-week ratings for ``Lost'' again strong, ABC now has the realistic hope that it has finally launched a new bona fide hit drama in prime time.

``It's still very, very early in the season, but our schedule seems to be performing nicely,'' Iger said. ``We're seeing some early signs of success that I'm not going to take to the bank, but I think 'so far, so good.'''

Iger expressed high hopes for the Sunday night drama ``Desperate Housewives,'' which has yet to debut but is generating buzz and has garnered strong critical praise.

On the feature-film front, Iger said Disney would continue to ``closely control'' overall spending on each feature film and that about half of the company's investment in features would be on such ``Disney-branded'' films as the ``Pirates of the Caribbean'' and ``Princess Diaries'' franchises.

Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs had earlier estimated that the Florida storms would probably cost the company about a penny a share during the fiscal fourth quarter. But ``that was a couple of storms ago,'' said Staggs, who amended that assessment to ``a strong penny'' on Thursday.

``I think it will work its way through,'' Staggs said.

Since the hurricanes have ended, bookings at the Orlando theme parks have come back, the executives said. But local attendance is expected to be down during the early part of the first quarter with so many Floridians working to get their homes and their lives back together.

Shares of Disney stock fell by 25 cents, or 1 percent, Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, closing at $22.55 per share.

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

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