Disney buys bulk of Fox

[UOK]

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The Walt Disney Company said on Thursday that it had reached a deal to buy most of the assets of 21st Century Fox, the conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, in an all-stock transaction valued at roughly $52.4 billion.

Not included in the acquisition: Fox News, the Fox broadcast network and the FS1 sports cable channel. Mr. Murdoch said he would spin those businesses and a handful of other cable networks into a newly listed company. Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, hopes 21st Century will supercharge its plans to introduce two Netflix-style streaming services. The company’s first major streaming effort, ESPN Plus, will arrive in the spring. A second and still unnamed offering, built around the company’s Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar brands, will roll out late next year. Rounding out its streaming portfolio will be Hulu, the already established service that focuses on older viewers with programming that includes ABC shows. Mr. Iger is buying 21st Century Fox’s minority stake in Hulu, resulting in majority control of the streaming service by Disney, which previously owned 30 percent. Comcast and Time Warner also have stakes in Hulu.

“We’re going to launch big, and we’re going to launch hot,” Mr. Iger said in September when announcing Disney’s streaming strategy. At the time, it could have been viewed as old-fashioned exaggeration. Not anymore. Disney is purchasing the Fox television studio, which has 36 series in production, including “The Simpsons,” “Homeland,” “This Is Us” and “Modern Family.” Disney’s significantly smaller TV factory, ABC Studios, has delivered series of inconsistent quality and lost its biggest hitmaker in August when the “Grey’s Anatomy” producer Shonda Rhimes decamped for Netflix.

To augment ESPN Plus, Disney is adding 21st Century Fox’s chain of 22 regional cable networks dedicated to sports, including the YES Network, which carries New York Yankees games. As part of the deal, Disney will also get the FX and National Geographic cable networks, and stakes in two behemoth overseas television-service providers, Sky of Britain and Star of India. That component of the deal would seem to contradict Disney’s push to lessen its reliance on traditional television, a business built on third-party cable subscriptions that is now in decline as people turn to streaming services for home entertainment.

[Boris13c]

well cool

maybe they can replace the idiots in the sports booths with Disney characters?

I'd much rather hear Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck than Joe Buck and Troy Aikman

[bearsfaninaz]

well cool

maybe they can replace the idiots in the sports booths with Disney characters?

I'd much rather hear Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck than Joe Buck and Troy Aikman

Yes let Joe Buck go back to baseball. I don't watch that so it won't hurt my eardrums hearing him speak about his love for Rodgers.

[YOGABBA]

Pretty big day for the FCC.

[UOK]

Pretty big day for the FCC.

I removed your avatar for obvious reasons. Can't have it, man. Not that I disagree, but it's just not worth it.