Disney Fox Merger Essay

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The Disney-Fox Merger and its ramifications. The Simpsons show has made a name for itself as a modern-day Nostradamus. 20 years ago, the show predicted Fox’s takeover by Disney. On 17th December, 2017, the Walt Disney Co. in a $52.4 billion, all-stock deal, made a bid to acquire 21st Century Fox and its entertainment and sports assets to augment their already asset-rich portfolio1, causing fans of superhero blockbusters worldwide to cheer. However, the deal has several other ramifications for the entertainment industry, some of which the Author attempts to discuss here. Disney’s motivations are clear enough; the media company is morphing into a goliath, and today, there exists no David capable of taking on Disney at its own game. Disney has …show more content…

The most interesting consequence of the Disney-Fox merger is Hulu’s fate. Hulu has had a funny story. It is a joint venture, with the ownership shares as follows: Disney – 30%, Fox – 30%, Comcast – 30% and Time Warner – 10%7. After the Disney-Fox merger closes, Disney will become the majority shareholder of Hulu, and can effectively control it. It may even attempt to buy-out Comcast and Time Warner, and turn Hulu to a full-fledged subsidiary. Currently, Hulu only offers services in the US, and in Japan. However, given Disney’s vast catalogue of content, Hulu’s services can be expanded world-wide, as a direct competitor to Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services. Whereas Netflix and the others are tech-driven and have only recently forayed into producing shows and movies de-novo, Disney has been in the game for so long, and has perfected the art of producing commercial flicks. Bright, Netflix’s most ambitious project, a 90 million USD film starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton opened to low viewer enthusiasm and negative reviews by critics. Contrast that to Disney’s recent movies – Thor: Ragnarok, Star Wars: the Last Jedi and Beauty and the Beast, which were all critically acclaimed, and commercially successful. Clearly, if Disney does manage to turn Hulu into its own streaming service, it will prove to be more than capable of taking on Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming

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