As reported by CNBC, The Walt Disney Company had been in discussions pertaining to purchase of 21st Century Fox, a deal which as per reports, later ‘cooled’ while talks are not yet over.
If the sale happened then, Disney would buy 21st Century Fox’s film studio, 20th Century Fox and some other business such as a few TV properties excluding the Fox’s News and sports business or its broadcast channel which will continue to be with Fox.
This would benefit Disney owned Marvel Studios because they will get the live-action cinema rights of Fox’s X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises and will also give Disney the rights to content such as Futurama and The Simpsons.
Disney had declared in August, its plans to launch a direct-to-consumer streaming service in 2019, and by then Disney would remove its content from Netflix. Netflix is currently the leading streaming service offering Disney titles such as Captain America: Civil War, Rogue One, Moana and the live-action Beauty and the Beast.
Taking over Fox’s entertainment properties would give Disney a lot of content for their upcoming streaming service, but, would also give Disney new IPs to develop including mega franchises such as James Cameron helmed Avatar and Planet of the Apes. The deal might also include Fox’s share in internet-based Hulu, 30% of which is owned by Fox and that’s equal to what Disney owns right now.
Another major attraction would be Futurama which debuted on Hulu last month after the original episodes of the futuristic sci-fi comedy were taken off Netflix.
Disney’s streaming service will offer exclusive content which would make it very competitive. Disney has already confirmed that they will introduce new live-action Star Wars and Marvel Shows on to their streaming platform and it will also see the arrival of new TV shows based on the popular Monsters Inc. and High School Musical franchises.
CEO Bob Iger of Disney accepted that their streaming service would initially offer “substantially less volume” than Netflix which will mean that the monthly subscription price will also be substantially below, what Netflix charges and it might just be one more way that Disney can hurt its rival.
