OT: Disney-FOX merger
Lots of talk in the news this week about Disney buying significant parts of 21st Century Fox. It's not clear yet what exactly they may be buying, but it has pretty big implications for sports fans.
It looks like Disney could be purchasing the Fox regional sports networks. As a Detroit fan, it would be great to consolidate the Tigers, Wings and Pistons under the ESPN umbrella, where most Michigan football and basketball games are already broadcast and streamed. However, it sounds like Fox will be keeping FS1 and the regular Fox broadcast channel.
Fox owns 51% of the BTN, and that may be moving over to Disney as well. IMO if the BTN got ESPN production value it would be an upgrade.
Part of the reason the B1G conference has so much TV money is that they have been very successful in playing potential broadcasters off each other to get max value, which is why Fox started broadcasting B1G football this year. I thought an ABC/ESPN/FOX congolomorate would reduce the B1G's leverage at first, but after further reading it looks like they will stay separate for now.
Outside the sports world, lots of big movie franchises would move, and be unified, under Disney. This includes Marvel characters and all Star Wars movie rights.
The articles below have more information. The WSJ one in particular focuses on the impact to sports fans and cable subscribers/cord-cutters, and how sports TV rights are an important piece for anti-trust regulators to consider as part of the deal.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/12/13/if-disney-buys-fox-…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-regulators-penalize-fox-disney-deal-o…
December 13th, 2017 at 10:23 AM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 10:40 AM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 10:46 AM ^
Disregard. Just Happy the X-Men property will be back under the Marvel umbrella.
December 13th, 2017 at 1:56 PM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 10:54 AM ^
As someone who streams a lot of sports, foxsportsgo is consistently the best quality, way better than WatchESPN. I even find streaming their FSD broadcasts of Pistons games to be better than NBA League Pass, which I'm paying extra for.
So if the local fox sports affliliates get bought up, I hope the quality doesn't suffer. Not to mention ESPN is already struggling with their overall quality since all the layoffs. My $0.02
December 13th, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
Disney running Fox Sports? Yikes. Can't wait to see ads for bags of BB8 oranges and Rey bags of salad mix along with football. Fun times ahead.
December 13th, 2017 at 1:19 PM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 11:11 AM ^
I am not a fan of ESPN controlling even more of the sports broadcasting/digital pie. Variety and competition are good for consumers. The thought of having to watch endless promos for Stephan A. Smith, Monday Night Football, and what used to be SportsCenter during Tigers games makes me want to dust off the ol' radio.
December 13th, 2017 at 11:23 AM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 12:46 PM ^
Gimme a riding mower, a yard to cut, and a Tigers game on the radio (or better yet a Michigan game in the fall) and I'm happier than a pig in shit.
December 13th, 2017 at 3:20 PM ^
I havent watched a baseball game other than Tigers WS or playoffs in years. I never miss one on the radio though. Id do the same with hockey if it wasnt so damn cold out. Football is must watch tv though.
December 13th, 2017 at 11:33 AM ^
stopped any merger?
Last meaningful one I remember was GE & Honeywell which was almost 20 years ago.
That's about it.
I often wonder whether the SEC and anti-trust regulators do anything. I think they are all in one office playing ping-pong.
Media consolidations are the worst for consumers. Less variety, less quality and for some strange reason poor product and services. Media consolidations are all of the good things mergers are supposed to bring to the table, except in reverse.
December 13th, 2017 at 11:56 AM ^
uhhh Comcast and TimeWarner
December 13th, 2017 at 12:06 PM ^
Meh, not really. In the old world of cable networks this may have been the case but the barriers to entry for media are ridiculously low and non-traditional media companies are bidding for broadcast rights to live sports.
Historically, interference with mergers has been bad. What happened to Standard Oil or the Bells after they were broken up? Wouldn't GE be in a much better place if they were able to purchase Honeywell? Remember, we play in a global marketplace, so the rules here may not apply everywhere else, and many even left-leaning societies are very permissive of such consolidation.
December 13th, 2017 at 10:18 PM ^
You picked 2 of the 4 most successful anti-trust actions in the 20th century to try to make a point that anit-trust actions are bad??
The price of gas was basically unchanged for 50 years, without adjustment for inflation after Standard Oil was broken up. How much do you pay for long distance now? How about even 10 years after the Bells were broken up? GE/Honeywell is a push 20 years later, at the time it kept 2 of the 3 largest players in high end avionics and engineering from merging.
I realize it's a global marketplace, but unless you can prove you have a direct competittor outside the US and/or US regulatory reach that could take advantage of the company's inability to grow, the default should be to promote competition and prevent mergers.
December 13th, 2017 at 12:46 PM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 1:22 PM ^
Depends on what you mean by meaningful I suppose.
December 13th, 2017 at 11:43 AM ^
The only good thing that can come from this is that the X-Men can finally join the rest of the Marvel universe and have merged movies.
December 13th, 2017 at 3:51 PM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 11:57 AM ^
Star Wars aside, count me as someone who would be "unamused" if this happened. I continually look for ways to get ESPN out of my life as much as possible. Not an easy task, but I'm all the way down to just watching live sports on ESPN's networks. I'd also worry about the negotiating power of the B1G to get a TV deal again with virtually no one else to bid against Disney owned networks. I know, FS1 would still be on its own with regular old FOX, but still.
December 13th, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^
More like an acquisition than a merger.
December 13th, 2017 at 12:45 PM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 1:36 PM ^
Could this PLEASE result in firing Delany?
December 13th, 2017 at 5:15 PM ^
December 13th, 2017 at 8:14 PM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 2:54 AM ^
I'll just get my Disney Star Wars opinions out of the way...
Force Awakens was meh.
Rogue One was unexpectedly AWESOME however.
I think that Last Jedi won't be nearly as safe as Force Awakens, and it might prove to show that Force Awakens actually set everything up decently.
One thing I can say for sure though: I can't wait to see this movie on Friday Night!!! Reviews are unbelievable, and significantly better than I remember Force Awakens reviews being. So excited and ready for more and more possibly the best Star Wars emotional journey since the best one of all time: Empire Strikes Back.
December 14th, 2017 at 2:56 AM ^
Ok, on to sports...
I would actually love this for BTN, FSD and the like. It has the potential to improve the quality of product tremendously.
However, it is more of a toss up what this means for the main network and Michigan Football games on national TV.