Impact of Disney Acquisition of Fox Properties

[anXUfan]

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

“Walt Disney Co. said Thursday it would buy select assets of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion in stock...”

“Fox Broadcasting Network and its stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Sports 1 and 2 and the Big Ten Network will be listed in a separate company for shareholders, Disney said.”

How will this impact the Big East? Will there be a reduction in competitive bidding for content between ESPN and Fox? Will the new Fox Sports broadcasting company be less aggressive without a deep pocketed parent?

Several of you seem to have professional experience in these types of things. What are your thoughts?

[stever20]

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

“Walt Disney Co. said Thursday it would buy select assets of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion in stock...”

“Fox Broadcasting Network and its stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Sports 1 and 2 and the Big Ten Network will be listed in a separate company for shareholders, Disney said.”

How will this impact the Big East? Will there be a reduction in competitive bidding for content between ESPN and Fox? Will the new Fox Sports broadcasting company be less aggressive without a deep pocketed parent?

Several of you seem to have professional experience in these types of things. What are your thoughts?

My hunch is that we're going to see the leftover group eventually acquired by someone else. I could see that being Turner. Which would create a true competitor for ESPN at that point.

[MarquetteRustler]

I think we'll see a lot more social justice in our sports coverage.

[ecasadoSBU]

I dont like this one bit... But I don't have a reason nor justification.

But it justs makes me feel like Fox is giving up on the Sports/Live content war...

Should we be worried????

[XtoDC]

Aren't the Fox news and sports properties going to remain their own thing? I don't think those are included in the acquisition. I'm not sure how this will affect the Fox Sports channels, but any changes as a result of it aren't going to come from Disney's orders.

[gtmoBlue]

Previous articles/reports stated Disney is buying the movie s tudio, its holdings, and TV content. It has been stated previously that the news and sports segments are not part of the proposed deal.

[NJRedman]

I think we'll see a lot more social justice in our sports coverage.

By being owned by Fox?

[NJRedman]

I think it's a good thing. That frees up more money for Fox to compete with ESPN and potentially more money for us in the next deal.

[Irishdawg]

I believe the only thing that Fox is giving up on its sports platform is going to be the regional networks, which will give ESPN more content avenues to bid on things like baseball and the NBA, since team networks are becoming very regionalized. I don't feel like those were big moneymakers for Fox though.

Fox News and FS1 and FS2 pretty much had to be left out in order to not shut the deal down due to Antitrust laws. I have no idea how this impacts the Big East, but considering how hot of a property the B1G is and Fox still has its deal with FS1 and the Big Ten Network, along with Pac 12 and Big 12 basketball to go with the Big East, I don't think it hurts the league initially in terms of a TV deal.

[GoldenWarrior11]

I have previously been on record to not immediately dismiss ESPN pursuing the Big East once the contract comes close to ending. ESPN, for all intents and purposes, has pulled back from it's "Requiem for the Big East" and "R.I.P. Big East" days from a few years ago. In recent weeks, numerous broadcasters for promoted the Big East as a top basketball conference, even diminishing their own product and our local resident's favorite conference, the American. With the regional sports networks under Fox now going to ESPN, and the need for more content once again coming to the forefront, I definitely see ESPN making a pursuit to reacquire the Big East package under its banner. Not only is it one of the best basketball conferences consistently year-to-year, the Big East was - for over three decades - ESPN's baby. It probably stung incredibly hard to not only for them to see the Big East continue to thrive, after their attempt to sell off its top pieces to other conferences that it owned the rights to, but also because they are now on a competitors network. The Big East Tournament, one of the staples of ESPN, and still regularly getting close to 20k during the semifinals and finals, cannot be shown on ESPN.

Conversely, I think this will inevitably end up negatively impacting the American. ESPN's stance on the AAC has been and is currently clear: they don't view them as a power conference, and only view them as content fillers on ESPN 2 and ESPNU. They don't want to pay them a single dollar more than they feel they are worth. With all of the new channels acquired today, many of the ESPN3 games will probably be bumped to those channels. Most importantly, the big dog (ESPN) just acquired many pieces of its top competitor. Without competition, there is not demand for the content. Without demand, the American will not be able to go to other networks in an attempt to drive up its price. With the new ACC network, they will have plenty of content to distribute on the East coast through these new channels. Less competition means far fewer options and lower revenue for content providers. This has the American written all over it.

If nothing else, I hope we finally get a decent Fantastic Four movie.