Bob Iger and Disney have made another big step in owning the entire media world.
Early Thursday morning the Mouse seemed to close on a deal to buy Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox’s film and TV businesses in a $52.4 million dollar stock deal. Additionally, Disney extended Iger’s contract through 2021 effectively delaying his own retirement given the massive amounts of assets the company has been able to close on (Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, etc.) during his tenure.
Via the New York Times:
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.
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.
Additionally the move sets Disney up to make their next major play into online streaming which if Net Neutrality doesn’t go through will continue to be a huge threat to cable and dish services. Likewise, Disney – who also gets a share of Hulu with the 21st Fox acquisition – will continue to look to compete against the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Facebook when it comes to that online streaming video. In fact, Disney has already invested time and money to produce their own streaming services such as a product that will focus on their Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm acquisitions which is set to debut later next year.
The merger will still need government approval.