Disney officially buys multiple Fox properties. BTN NOT included.
December 14th, 2017 at 10:46 AM ^
But for real I'm not sure how I feel about Disney owning so much stuff.
December 14th, 2017 at 10:46 AM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 10:51 AM ^
I don't think it changes much. I don't believe Disney was active at all in the regional sports network market, now they will be, but at the same time Fox exits the market. I don't see that making a big difference to anything.
December 14th, 2017 at 10:46 AM ^
Prop up flagging ESPN with more pro regional coverage rights and reuinite the X-Men and Spidey with the rest of the Marvel universe?
December 14th, 2017 at 12:06 PM ^
Spider-Man has already been reunited.
As for X-Men, there won't be an reunion in terms of the movies. It will simply be the arrival.
December 14th, 2017 at 3:18 PM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 3:20 PM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 10:51 AM ^
What has happened then is that Jim Delany has created a situation wherein even Walt Disney Corporation wants nothing to do with him, which means that we'll never hear him discuss things like conference expansion and awful officiating as "supercalafragilisticexpialidocious" without first paying some sort of royalty when we all would want him to have unfettered access to his go-to explanation.
December 14th, 2017 at 10:52 AM ^
and BTN all stay with fox. This was mostly about movie and tv rights. They also get Fox's stake in HULU. I wouldnt be suprised if they throw a boat load of $$ at Jackman to be Wolverine for 5 miuntes in Avengers 4, which they are still filming, maybe even throw in Xmen, Fantastic 4 , and Deadpool references to start the next phase of Marvel Movies
DC and Warner Bros should give up.
December 14th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
that Disney/ESPN has doubled down on a declining industry. Consolidation in the face of declining fortunes is certainly typical. FOX sells high, ESPN gets a chokehold on sports broadcast distribution. What follows? Fewer players to compete for rights fees and then...lower rights fees. The rights fee bubble has just experienced one large step in its slow motion collapse.
December 14th, 2017 at 11:16 AM ^
Yup. Time for the Big Ten to start thinking about sending Rutgers packing.
December 14th, 2017 at 11:30 AM ^
Fulham next month. Never been to Craven Cottage.
BTW: I just love the names of some of the iconic venues. Craven Cottage...Old Trafford...White Hart Lane...Vicarage Road...Stamford Bridge...City Ground.
December 14th, 2017 at 2:04 PM ^
I'm jealous, it's on my bucket list. When they find their way back into the Premiership, it's going to be fun to convince my wife that we need to go London for a soccer game.
December 14th, 2017 at 2:57 PM ^
to Brentford, Millwall and Watford. To my surprise she was into it. The chanting and creative taunting intrigued her. Lucky me, I guess.
December 14th, 2017 at 9:14 PM ^
It doesn't seem coincidental that this deal occurred on the heels of disbanding net neutrality. Word on the street is the loss of net neutrality rewards couplings and pairings of established media outlets/apps, which will be offered with data plans for high-speed consumption by the public.
I read somewhere to expect flat fee offerings for general data usage (email, text, browsers) from the major data providers, then a la carte "packages" will increase your bill to match your data preferences; i.e., you can purchase a plan consisting of ABC, ESPN, Disney, FOX streaming apps for sports and entertainment television and film, or a different "bundle" on a with a different provider. Ultimately, the market will dictate what we're willing to pay for these streaming services, but my sense is this is the beginning of the destruction of cable television and advertising as we know it. The future is data streaming, not channel surfing, for most entertainment consumption.
To me, it's not so much that the consumer will experience a major difference in the hit to his wallet; but we'll see a fairly significant redistribution of wealth in entertainment media. "Cable" will continue to control the spigots of our media consumption, but only to the extent they can pair with the biggest data providers, which requires establishment in mobile. It's then a race for the established media networks to bundle themselves competitively, providing services tailored and attuned to the present and future attention span; i.e., binge consumption, sports highlights, and a heavy dose of social media (connecting fantasy sports and entertainment media to 140-280 character commentary).
If more people choose to connect to the media via pre-bundled apps then surfing the web, the losers would appear to be proprietors in the competitive online marketplace, the blogs and alternative sources of entertainment media that may not be included in app bundles available through the service providers.
December 14th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
I personally like having XMen and the MCU be seperate entities/timelines/worlds/etc. I hope they don't merge the two in films, the MCU is already a bit crowded. I know that opinion isn't very comic accurate and while I'm on a roll with unpopular takes, I am also not a huge F4 fan either. Does Marvel get Venom back too? It's all very confusing with Sony/Marvel/Marvel Studios/Fox etc. #NerdPost #KeepDeadpoolRatedR
December 14th, 2017 at 12:09 PM ^
The two will be merged. There is no doubt whatsoever. That said, it will be a long time before that happens. They're years away from releasing an X-Men movie. Fantastic Four was not part of the deal for whatever reason, which is unfortunate. As for Venom, Fox never owned that property. Sony does, which means Disney has no rights to it.
December 14th, 2017 at 12:23 PM ^
I think Disney will reboot the Avengers franchise to include the X-Men after RDJ, Evans, etc. contracts expire.
December 14th, 2017 at 12:25 PM ^
Interesting. I have seen conflicting reports on if they'll be merged as well as if F4 is coming. James Gunn (Guadians of the Galaxy director, brother of Kurt from Gilmour Girls) tweeted welcoming both XMen and F4 back to the family FWIW. XMen also just had the cover of Entertainment Weekly for the next Dark Phoenix movie and also have New Mutants coming out soon. Perhaps you meant it'll be years before Marvel releases one. Shame on the Venom front though Tom Hardy should crush it, whatever IT is.
December 14th, 2017 at 10:59 AM ^
1. I'm not a big fan of megacorporations
2. I was hoping that this deal might mean getting BTN's and FOX's streaming apps up to the level of WatchESPN, but it doesn't sound likely.
In conclusion, boo.
December 14th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
I have constant buffering issues with WatchESPN on multiple devices in my home but on those same devices my experience with FSGO has been fantastic.
December 14th, 2017 at 11:04 AM ^
This has been my experience as well
December 14th, 2017 at 11:36 AM ^
BTN2Go is decent for me in Ann Arbor, but FoxSportsGo is a disaster. It doesn't buffer so much as it jumps forward and backward constantly. I end up re-watching parts of a game and then it jumps live and I've missed something. By far the worst streaming app I've ever used. I wonder why there's such a difference in performance.
December 14th, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^
I was hoping BTN Plus would become just like SEC Network Plus, available without the extra fee.
December 14th, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^
What is wrong with megacorporations?
December 14th, 2017 at 10:59 AM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^
AFAIK, Fox was never willing to part with the main sports channels. The idea was for Murdoch to refocus on news and sports, his bread and butter, and spend less time on broadcasting and movies. If anything, it is surprising that they kept the Fox network considering they are selling all of their British TV properties.
December 14th, 2017 at 11:09 AM ^
Does espn MISS on college football broadcasts?
Showing coaches, chicks, or some combination of fans being idiots.
They continue to get worse.
December 14th, 2017 at 11:24 AM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 11:29 AM ^
Thank goodness, I was worried for a second that Sparty was about to become a Disney princess.
December 14th, 2017 at 11:40 AM ^
This is just an agreement correct? This can still be blocked?
December 14th, 2017 at 11:50 AM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 11:51 AM ^
Pretty soon 6 corporations are going to own every single thing in the universe.
December 14th, 2017 at 12:02 PM ^
Clearly they missed a chance to have Delaney show them the map detailing how the Big Ten owns the New York market. Rutgers alone should have got this deal done.
December 14th, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^
I wonder why Fox got out of the RSN game... it seems to me that the RSNs have a much brighter future than the rights Fox kept with FS1/FS2/BTN. If I had to bet on what people would pay a premium to stream, it would be just their local NHL/NBA/MLB team's games.
December 14th, 2017 at 1:11 PM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 2:19 PM ^
Is whether FS1 still exists in a recognizable form in five years. Fox is basically just a broadcast network, Fox News/Business, FS1/FS2, Big 10 and their TV stations at this point. FS1 has done nothing but lose gobs and gobs of money. At what point do they get out of the top end sports rights business? It's not even clear there's enough money to support 1 cable network bidding on these major contracts for multiple sports, let alone two or three.
December 14th, 2017 at 2:30 PM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 8:52 PM ^
December 14th, 2017 at 2:50 PM ^
Don't think it's official until it passes gubbmint muster.
December 14th, 2017 at 4:07 PM ^
I feel like I'm in Assassin's Creed and Disney is the new Abstergo Industries (Templars)
December 14th, 2017 at 4:52 PM ^
Ultimately everything predicted on the show will come true!