Disney’s Fox Acquisition Set For March 20th
Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox is due to come to a close at 12:02 a.m. Eastern Time on March 20, 2019.
This announcement comes off the heels of Disney gaining approval for the deal from regulators in Mexico, where they agreed to sell the Fox Sports networks in Mexico. Similar to issues that occurred in Brazil and in the US, over fears of market dominance with Disney’s ESPN brand.
Disney have paid $71.3 billion for 21st Century Fox, which includes a 30% stake in Hulu, FX television, National Geographic, Fox Searchlight and 21st Century Fox movies. There are lots of big brands included in the deal such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, Aliens, Predator, Avatar, Die Hart and many more, in addition to gaining home video rights for Star Wars movies and access to Marvel characters like Deadpool, Fantastic Four and the X-Men for films.
However due to losing a bidding war with Comcast over SKY last year, they will be selling that for $39 Billion and will also be getting $3.47 million for the YES Sports network from Amazon. So Disney will be getting back over half the cost of the investment.
Fox News, Fox Sports and the Fox Channel will become part of “Fox Entertainment” and won’t be included in the sale to Disney.
Once the purchase is complete, we should start seeing a clearer picture of how Disney is planning on incorporating Fox related brands into Disney+. National Geographic is set to be a major brand for Disney+, but it isn’t yet clear if any other brands such as The Simpsons, Avatar and Marvel characters such as The X-Men, will also be integrated.
Disney is set to announce more details on Disney+ on April 11th, so I’m expecting more details to be revealed then.
Roger Palmer
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