It’s now official – Walt Disney Company has purchased key parts of 21st Century Fox including the 20th Century Fox movie studio and the 20th Century Fox Television production company, along with media assets like Fox Searchlight, Fox 2000, FX Networks, FX Productions, National Geographic Partners, Fox21, Fox Regional Sports Networks, and Fox’s stake in Hulu, Star India, Endemol Shine Group and Sky.
Not included in the deal due to anti-trust restrictions are Fox News, the FOX broadcast network, or Fox Sports, which all remain a part of the Fox empire – as will the Fox studio lot in Century City. Those will be separated and maintained either under a newly listed company that will be spun off to its shareholders, or merge with News Corp. itself.
Disney now has its hands on Fox’s key franchises including “X-Men,” “Alien,” “Predator,” “Avatar,” “Die Hard,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Kingsman” and “Fantastic Four” (which is listed in the press release). Disney now also controls the full rights to all “Star Wars” films with the previously Fox-owned 1977 original likely to go back to Disney’s Lucasfilm – meaning theatrical re-releases and a potential home video version of the original theatrical cut.
Disney’s upcoming streaming service will also benefit with the addition of a ton of Fox content. The entire deal was done for approximately $52.4 billion in stock along with Disney also assuming approximately $13.7 billion of net debt for a total transaction value of approximately $66.1 billion.
At the request of both 21st Century Fox and the Disney Board of Directors, Mr. Iger has agreed to continue as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company through the end of calendar year 2021.
The Boards of Directors of Disney and 21st Century Fox have approved the transaction, which is subject to shareholder approval by 21st Century Fox and Disney shareholders, clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, a number of other non-United States merger and other regulatory reviews, and other customary closing conditions. It’s expected it will take 12-18 months to gain the necessary approvals to fuse the companies. [Reply]
Disney will be offering a service in 2019 that will cost less than Netflix or Amazon, which will give subscribers access to all of the Disney Catalog: TV series, Feature Films (Disney, Lucasfilm, Pixar and Marvel included).
They're creating some content, one of which will be a Live Action Star Wars series but they're not going to create content, at this point anyway, in huge quantities like Netflix or Amazon, nor are they going to license content from other networks.
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Disney would need to buy out NBC/Comcast's 30% share and WB's 10% share.
That's probably a long shot.
I was thinking more along the lines of just using Hulu as the platform, and charging a separate fee for Disney content like Hulu already does with HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax. [Reply]
Originally Posted by unlurking:
I was thinking more along the lines of just using Hulu as the platform, and charging a separate fee for Disney content like Hulu already does with HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax.
That defeats the purpose of a stand-alone app and would require people to subscribe to Hulu in order to watch Disney content for an additional price. [Reply]