Damn! The Walt Disney Company made a hell of a deal this morning and acquired Fox film and tv business for $52.4 billion. Fox shareholders will hold a 25% stake in Disney as a part of the deal. Bob Iger will extend his contract to 2021 to oversee the implementation of the deal. The streaming wars are heating up and Disney just bitch slapped Netflix by acquiring a wealth of content. In addition, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool will be now used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! Marvel fans must be wetting their pants!

In addition to the above, the Walt Disney Company has also acquired Fox Sports Regional channels which carry many professional teams across Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey. This fits in with the narrative that Bob Iger spun during a recent earnings call when he touted a sports streaming service “The ESPN-branded multi-sport service will offer a robust array of sports programming, featuring approximately 10,000 live regional, national, and international games and events a year, including Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Grand Slam tennis, and college sports.” So essentially now ESPN is in the regional sports game so instead of Fox Sports Midwest, South, Bay Area etc. We may see ESPN-South, Midwest etc.  This could be a huge combatant for the cord-cutting hurdles ESPN is facing as ESPN itself  currently carries very little of the Big 4 sports leagues live. Now that they are in the regional game it will be hard for many to avoid ESPN if they want to watch their teams play in real time.