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Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

thewaltdisneycompany.com

161–170 of 362 posts

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#161

Why not go all the way and merge all companies into 1 big one. Being born on the wrong side of the iron curtain I already saw economy based on monopolies. Communism failed because prices were centrally set. We knew how to build useful things (that don't break 1 day after warranty) but not which ones to build and how many. (wiki) A price signal is information conveyed to consumers and producers, via the price charged…

Ironically, capitalism converging to few monopolies or quasi-monopolies controlling everything was one of the big arguments anti-capitalists used to use when I was younger: that if it's got to be monopolies or quasi-monopolies, then it's better if they are State-controlled monopolies.

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#162

Sane antitrust regulations should kill this deal. It is bad for everybody other than shareholders of those two companies. In particular bad for customers, other companies and employees: https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/2172555... https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21695385-profits-are...

Antitrust regulations should kill google and facebook, but they’re not. In my opinion those two are much bigger fish to fry than two movie companies.

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's entertainment. Why should anything other than being good for shareholders matter? It's not an essential goods company like say food or medicine

It's culture. Why should a single entity have such overlarge control over the creative works that lead and inspire all of us?

To the extent culture is based on commercial dreck, it doesn’t deserve to be protected.

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#164
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your math is impeccable. But I do wonder if someone is considering the possibility that people will get tired of superhero movies in the relatively near future and the whole concept will seem dated.

I've been hoping for this for... I mean it must be a decade now.

I thought I could wait out Britney Spears, and the entire industry became Britney Spears, and stayed Britney Spears.

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#165
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disney is only interested in the creative/film assets; broadcast distribution and news/sports are being spun off.

The "big five" studios decreasing to the "big four" is not a good thing either. I feel like people have decided that because they really want an Avengers/X-Men movie (I want one too), it's okay that one of the largest companies on the planet is buying out one of their largest competitors.

Most consider that there are 6 “majors” in Hollywood. Disney, Fox, Warners, Paramount, and Sony.

Which one did you exclude by stating there are only five?

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#166
post #83
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we have a list of mispredictions?

* Trump as president, predicted in the 2000 episode "Bart To The Future" [0] * Top 10 Simpsons Predictions That Came True [1] (not a great video though) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZyaDKaun7w [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQGXofzQEiE

May go deeper than we think. Saw this yesterday:

https://twitter.com/hailbotsghost/status/827162230974078979

Anybody else get the feeling Kirsten Gillibrand has seen the Simpsons prophecies and is taking them very seriously?

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#167
post #158

So, will the Fox fanfare return to all Star Wars films, past and present, from now on?

The Uber Nerd in me says the purchase was to secure rights to Star Wars: ANH and the fanfare. This will also open up the doors for a complete unedited despecialized edition of the original trilogy, not some bad laserdisc scan.

Oh good. Surrendering the entire mythos of the English speaking world to a single, domineering company opposed to freedom of speech and information is totally worth a cleaner copy of Star Wars.

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#168
post #9

So along with Disney pulling all their titles from Netflix for their own streaming service, I guess the FX content will be next to go from Netflix.

Oh it's crazy how much stuff Disney can pull off Netflix, I don't know if they will, because it's in their interest to have some stuff accessible over more than one place, but they own ABC (Lost, Castle, Firefly, etc), ESPN, Marvel, LucasArts, now Fox and their assets, not to mention they distribute on behalf of many publishers (Dreamworks for example), they would probably clear more than half of Netflix's content if…

They will starting next year. They're building their own streaming service competitor

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/disney-will-pull-its-movies-...

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#169
I'm kind of torn on whether this is the same as other media mergers like Comcast-Universal or the upcoming Sinclair-Tribune mergers. I think mergers of news and broadcast outlets are generally bad but the bulk of what Disney is buying is intellectual property. Can owning tons of trademarks and copyrights ever be considered a monopoly? I am uncomfortable with one company owning Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Aliens, Predator, and all the other things. But if they make crappy movies then people will just watch something else.

Re: Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox

#170
post #49

Sane antitrust regulations should kill this deal. It is bad for everybody other than shareholders of those two companies. In particular bad for customers, other companies and employees: https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/2172555... https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21695385-profits-are...

Disney is only interested in the creative/film assets; broadcast distribution and news/sports are being spun off.

Disney is also developing their own streaming service. They see the writing on the wall. In 20 years, broadcast and cable will be dead. Probably within 10.

They can roll their own streaming service (because there isn't any decent ones to buy). But content is expensive.

If the launch with Disney&Fox content while denying Netflix any Disney and Fox content, they'll have a shot at surviving.

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