Soon enough Disney will buy Sony Pictures and the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be whole again.

I can’t wait for the anti-trust laws to be enforced in 2019.

The anti-trust laws are only enforced now against Trump's foes. Trump called to congratulate Murdoch about selling off Fox assets and get reassured that Fox media will still defend Trump.

Disney isn't buying the news station, so they still would be.

I don't think this deal alone would constitute a full violation, but when their streaming service goes live in 2019, not enforcing them would be a dangerous violation of historical precedent.

I’m excited about the deal but also worried about it. I think it could be good for some properties and their entertainment value but with so much pull on the box office, cable programming, and sports, Disney could really screw the average consumer.

I don’t like it. People don’t usually consider studio monopolies to be a big deal, and everyone is giddy about the idea of some characters they like getting to meet. We shouldn’t forget this is basically posturing to make absolutely certain the streaming service they launch in 2019 will be even more uncompetitive than it would have been before the buyout. I don’t see a way such a service could possibly make a legal argument that it’s not violating the decision of US v Paramount.

But without that streaming service, what's really left to compete with Netflix? Hulu? (which will be majority Disney owned) You start busting up one internet monopoly, and you open up a huge Pandora's box.

Just a note I don’t think Disney will go all in on their own streaming service now that they have (I believe I read) 60% of Hulu. It makes more sense for them to use the existing Hulu business model and just make all Disney content exclusive to Hulu.

Amazon prime and youtube red...

I like it, i get to refer to them as the disney megacorp. Also now that the own the Alien franchise, all things spawned by the Alien Queen are Disney Princesses, which i think is awesome.

Estimates suggest the megacorp will be earning 40% of all US box office take. So if you're worried, just attend more movies made by other smaller studios. And/or pirate the disney movies #peacefulprotest.

Those two can't compete with Hulu, because Hulu will be completely vertically integrated. They own the content. YouTube and Amazon hardly make anything. Netflix will even have trouble mustering up enough to fight this. There's so much Disney and soon-to-be Disney IP on Netflix right now that they could pull off if they wanted to.

Not to even mention what this does to sports. Fox Sports is now Disney, I believe. They were the second biggest sports network behind ESPN.

I would say Amazon could compete against Netflix, but I’ve been saying for like a year that the Amazon monopoly’s days are numbered so that’s not the best response. Also, while YouTube Red was designed to compete with Netflix, it doesn’t have a nearly strong enough user base to do that.

The biggest problem is that Netflix isn’t nearly as anti-competitive as Disney, at least not to come under fire by the precedent of US v Paramount. Their own content wouldn’t be nearly enough to keep them going, so they retain content that competes against what they own. The practices that were ruled illegal in the Paramount decision were a lot more malicious than anything Netflix has done. The brunt of legal enforcement will still primarily fall on Disney’s head.

"There's so much Disney and soon-to-be Disney IP on Netflix right now that they could pull off if they wanted to."

They are actually planning to do this.

Most of the comments are about what this deal means for Disney, or Disney's competitors, which is fair enough. Very few comments about what this means for Murdoch and News Corporation ( two of the great tax minimisers/avoiders )
Is this Rupert Murdoch signalling that he sees no successor within his family capable of running the News Corporation Empire ? Is this Rupert's first step in breaking up the Empire ha has built ?

"Is this Rupert's first step in breaking up the Empire he has built ?"

Fox is looking to shed its entertainment divisions to focus on its sports and news divisions so it's more streamlining than breaking up, I would say.

Cash is fungible. He's breaking up the Empire for his heirs.

The Disney deal does give control of fox sports to Disney, who already owned ESPN.

@"There's so much Disney and soon-to-be Disney IP on Netflix right now that they could pull off if they wanted to"

Amazon host netflix and run their competing service amazon prime. Because they believe netflix makes money and competition is good; might aswell make money hosting netflix AND running a competing service.

Is disney going to pull all its content and launch it elsewhere? Will the suffer due to a lack of competition?

Disney is planning to make two new streaming services. One for sports and the other entertainment using acquired content from Fox. Everyone is switching to exclusive content for their own services to lure viewers and Disney has several with its acquisitions of Marvel and Star Wars in addition to its older material.

After years of complaining about the high price of cable it's becoming the higher price of having to pay for several mutually exclusive providers with unique content. Or waiting for free offers and binge watching for a week.

Disney could realistically do it, put a thick stab into all other streaming services, and remain afloat with enough television and movie content to last a lifetime. Especially now that Fox entertainment properties would go on their service. And as streaming service increasingly replaces movies as primary distributors, beating back Netflix content is more and more all Disney will have to do. Stranger Things and Mindhunter are great, but probably not enough to keep up with the entirety of everything Disney owns.

Streaming services replacing movie theaters as primary distributors also means replacing them as the primary focus of US v Paramount.

Interesting take guys.

I wonder how piracy will figure into this, so far it is much more convenient for me to have netflix track which episode of my current tv show i'm watching than trying to keep track myself, but if i'm offered the choice of paying for multiple different services those benefits may outweigh the cost.