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What Disney's Acquisition of Fox Means For the Future of Film and TV (qz.com)
Disney announced on Thursday it had reached a $52 billion deal to buy most of the assets of 21st Century Fox. It is "the biggest and most consequential media merger in an era of big and consequential media consolidation deals," reports Quartz. "The deal will have a lasting effect on film, television, and the internet." From the report: If the merger is approved, Disney will own: All of Fox's film studios (20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, and Fox 2000); Fox's television studio; FX Networks; National Geographic; Fox's stake in European broadcaster Sky; Fox's stake in North American streamer Hulu. Staying with the hollowed out 21st Century Fox is the Fox broadcast network, Fox News, Fox Sports, and Fox Business. With Fox's film and TV studios and its cable networks, Disney will acquire the rights to literally hundreds of popular television series and movies. (Some of which include Avatar, X-Men, Deadpool, Modern Family and The Simpsons.)
Imagine all of the properties mentioned above, plus all of Disney's existing franchises (Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, etc.) combined into one internet streaming service. You won't have to imagine for long, because that's pretty much exactly why Disney CEO Bob Iger was so keen on buying all of Fox's biggest assets. Disney plans to release a streaming entertainment service in 2019. It would have been quite formidable on its own, even without Fox's help, but now it will likely be the first true rival to Netflix in the streaming space. Before today, Disney, Fox, and Comcast (NBCUniversal) all shared equal 30% stakes in Hulu (Time Warner owns 10%). But when Disney takes over Fox's share of the streaming service, it will own 60%, becoming a controlling majority owner, relegating Comcast to minority owner in the process.
20th Century Fox, we hardly knew ye. Okay, that may be a bit premature, but it's clear that Fox's film business won't be the same if the merger is approved. The deal marks the first time in modern history that one major film studio has purchased another, eliminating one of the "big six," and essentially giving Disney control of two-thirds of Hollywood. (The other four major movie studios are Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Sony.)
Imagine all of the properties mentioned above, plus all of Disney's existing franchises (Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, etc.) combined into one internet streaming service. You won't have to imagine for long, because that's pretty much exactly why Disney CEO Bob Iger was so keen on buying all of Fox's biggest assets. Disney plans to release a streaming entertainment service in 2019. It would have been quite formidable on its own, even without Fox's help, but now it will likely be the first true rival to Netflix in the streaming space. Before today, Disney, Fox, and Comcast (NBCUniversal) all shared equal 30% stakes in Hulu (Time Warner owns 10%). But when Disney takes over Fox's share of the streaming service, it will own 60%, becoming a controlling majority owner, relegating Comcast to minority owner in the process.
20th Century Fox, we hardly knew ye. Okay, that may be a bit premature, but it's clear that Fox's film business won't be the same if the merger is approved. The deal marks the first time in modern history that one major film studio has purchased another, eliminating one of the "big six," and essentially giving Disney control of two-thirds of Hollywood. (The other four major movie studios are Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Sony.)
First, it's obvious the government should block this deal as the media is way too conglomerated as it is, which of course means the Trump admin will approve it wholeheartedly (not that immediate previous admins would have blocked it either).
Second, Disney won't become netflix. Disney is way too greedy for that. It will do some type of tiered pricing bullshit and then add PPV on any streaming they serve and the basic will be real shit. But on top of that, I can guarantee they'll do commercials.
Which isn't to say Netflix isn't in big trouble. It is. It should have taken a loan long ago, brought HBO for original programming long ago, and built on that with acquisitions of libraries rather than trying to build the library one by one. Now all content is in a bubble getting more and more expensive.
Everybody is talking about what Disney is going to do with all that intellectual property, but what I want to know is what will the 52B be used for at what is left of Fox? Thatâ(TM)s a LOT of money. What Fox does with it will also be Major unless itâ(TM)s just pocketed by investors and stock holders.
Actually, people didn't pay for the 50 channels they wanted. They paid for the 50 shows they wanted. And this is not going to be any different. Be honest, all you "CBS all access" subscribers, who of you is watching anything other than STD? Possibly because of "I pay for it anyway, so I can just as well...", but NONE of these other formats is something you'd pay for.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The merchandising for the Cars franchise has produced over $10 billion in sales. Cars 3 made money on its own, but it really served as an advertising avenue for the more profitable aspects of the business, such as the theme park, toys, branded clothing, etc. http://www.cartoonbrew.com/box...
So Simpsons are now owned by Disney? Boy, oh, boy! Since Fox has been a running joke in many Simpsons episodes, I can't wait to see what they come up with about their new overlords.