Disney In Talks to Acquire Majority of 21st Century Fox

[aoconnor]

The deal would give Disney access to a large trove of new IP to use in its parks.

"For Disney, the opportunity to take control of another movie studio and significant TV production assets as it readies a direct to consumer entertainment streaming offering is attractive, as is Fox's significant exposure to international markets, such as the U.K., Germany and Italy both through its networks and 30 percent ownership of Sky B.

In addition to the movie studio, TV production and international assets such as Star and Sky B, Disney would also add entertainment networks such as FX and National Geographic."

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/06/21s...o-sell-most-of-company-to-disney-sources.html

 

[JamesGarvey]

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/06/21s...o-sell-most-of-company-to-disney-sources.html

In Disney's continuing move to offer direct to consumer media, they are reportedly in talks to purchase most of Fox's assets, in the neighborhood of $20-30bil and consist of pretty much everything from Fox's broadcast channel, cable networks, news and sports division, which probably wouldnt be legal for Disney to own anyway due to anti trust concerns. Among other things, this would consolidate many of the Marvel licenses (including Spider-Man, X-Men, Deadpool and Fantastic Four) and before you ask, no, this wouldnt change anything about the Universal licensing in the parks.

This is a massive shot across the bow of Netflix, potentially building a behemoth of movie and tv rights that will make the competing Disney streaming service far more tempting when people are looking to choose one or the other.

 

[Irish_Mike]

God, I'm sure the executives are salivating over the chance to get those Marvel licenses back.

Interesting to see where this goes.

 

[JamesGarvey]

This merger would make Disney the largest movie studio in America.

 

[Lee Matthews]

Blimey, that would be one massive acquisition.

From what I gather, Fox was looking to buy the remainder of SKY TV and own all of it. To sell it all to Disney would be massive as Disney would then own 60% of the paid Digital TV market here in the UK.

I’m struggling though to get my head around what would or wouldn’t be included in such a deal

 

[rteetz]

God, I'm sure the executives are salivating over the chance to get those Marvel licenses back.

Interesting to see where this goes.

Interesting point I didn’t think about.

 

[rteetz]

Reminder this would be mainly for film. Disney would not acquire the sports, business, or news networks in this deal.

 

[tjkraz]

Among other things, this would consolidate many of the Marvel licenses (including Spider-Man...

Spider-Man rights are owned by Sony. Though given the recent Civil War / SM Homecoming joint productions, seems like that relationship is in a good place right now.

 

[mikepizzo]

Would the regulators ever allow this?

 

[JamesGarvey]

You right on Spider Man, just recalled Fox is behind Avatar, meaning that Disney would no longer owe a license to Fox for Pandora because they would own it.

 

[rteetz]

You right on Spider Man, just recalled Fox is behind Avatar, meaning that Disney would no longer owe a license to Fox for Pandora because they would own it.

This is interesting. I never saw Fox mentioned really at all in the talks about Pandora. I only ever heard about James Cameron and his company Lightstorm.

 

[rteetz]

Would the regulators ever allow this?

I think it’s more possible since this doesn’t include the news, sports, and business networks. This is specifically film.

 

[JamesGarvey]

This is interesting. I never saw Fox mentioned really at all in the talks about Pandora. I only ever heard about James Cameron and his company Lightstorm.

https://www.avclub.com/fox-is-spending-a-billion-dollars-on-those-avatar-seque-1819017353

 

[rteetz]

https://www.avclub.com/fox-is-spending-a-billion-dollars-on-those-avatar-seque-1819017353

This doesn’t tell me anything about the licensing agreement with the land of Pandora in AK. Of course Fox would invest in the sequels but I’m not sure about the contract for the land. The land doesn’t really feature any specific things from the existing Avatar movie. Now it’s said to have aspects from the future movies but we don’t know what those are yet.

 

[JamesGarvey]

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/21/business/la-fi-ct-disney-avatar-20110921


"Disney reached a long-term, exclusive licensing agreement with "Avatar" director James Cameron and his producing partner Jon Landau, as well as the film's financier and distributor, 20th Century Fox, to develop theme park rides and attractions based on the 2009 hit and its two planned sequels."

 

[ONUAtrain]

Would this allow any of the rights to the characters in the park to be switched to Disney? AKA Universal and the Avengers

 

[rteetz]

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/21/business/la-fi-ct-disney-avatar-20110921


"Disney reached a long-term, exclusive licensing agreement with "Avatar" director James Cameron and his producing partner Jon Landau, as well as the film's financier and distributor, 20th Century Fox, to develop theme park rides and attractions based on the 2009 hit and its two planned sequels."

I know this probably isn’t public info but I’d be interested in the role 20th Century Fox had in the land.

 

[jknezek]

This is absolutely a shot at Netflix. Any small ongoing royalties about Avatar is incidental. This is about getting content, making content, and having a service that can rival Netflix, as well as depriving Netflix of another distributor. Disney has to come through on the tech to run the service and they need to nail the price point, but it's clear where their heads are at. Disney needs this service to work to hold on to their profit margins, and it appears they are willing to shell out to make it happen. Disney can survive over paying in the short term, I'm not sure Netflix can. So this is all about stressing Netflix management into making bad decisions and spending money they don't have. Content is about to get very expensive, very fast.

 

[rteetz]

Would this allow any of the rights to the characters in the park to be switched to Disney?

What do mean?

 

[ONUAtrain]

What do mean?

Sorry just edited; getting the Avengers back into the parks east of the Mississippi