OT: Disney-FOX merger

Submitted by Sambojangles on

Lots of talk in the news this week about Disney buying significant parts of 21st Century Fox. It's not clear yet what exactly they may be buying, but it has pretty big implications for sports fans.

It looks like Disney could be purchasing the Fox regional sports networks. As a Detroit fan, it would be great to consolidate the Tigers, Wings and Pistons under the ESPN umbrella, where most Michigan football and basketball games are already broadcast and streamed. However, it sounds like Fox will be keeping FS1 and the regular Fox broadcast channel. 

Fox owns 51% of the BTN, and that may be moving over to Disney as well. IMO if the BTN got ESPN production value it would be an upgrade. 

Part of the reason the B1G conference has so much TV money is that they have been very successful in playing potential broadcasters off each other to get max value, which is why Fox started broadcasting B1G football this year. I thought an ABC/ESPN/FOX congolomorate would reduce the B1G's leverage at first, but after further reading it looks like they will stay separate for now.

Outside the sports world, lots of big movie franchises would move, and be unified, under Disney. This includes Marvel characters and all Star Wars movie rights.

The articles below have more information. The WSJ one in particular focuses on the impact to sports fans and cable subscribers/cord-cutters, and how sports TV rights are an important piece for anti-trust regulators to consider as part of the deal.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/12/13/if-disney-buys-fox-…

https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-regulators-penalize-fox-disney-deal-o…

mgobaran

December 13th, 2017 at 1:53 PM ^

God forbid anyone actually enjoy something. We get 13 Michigan games a year, and even the worst one is going to be the 13th best thing you watch all year! There is nothing wrong with cherishing Michigan or Star Wars even if it isn't the best thing you have ever seen like many people expect. 

Mr. Owl

December 13th, 2017 at 10:40 AM ^

Yeah.  Force Wakes Up didn't explain anything about how we got to where things were back to completely messed up again & had way too many "I saw this before & it was done better" combined with obvious marketing.



They honestly didn't even build up any reason to even care about any of the characters, save for maybe former stormtrooper.



It seemed lazy.



Rouge One was fantastic.

NowTameInThe603

December 13th, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^

I think it was a Ringer article that explained it best but basically there was too much riding on the force awakens to take a chance. Now if you want to call that greedy or pandering, fine. They needed it to catch the spirit and feel of the originals after the prequels were a disaster. So yes it was formulaic but if you didnt enjoy the hell out of that movie the first time you saw it then you didnt want another star wars movie anyway.

tnixon16

December 13th, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^

I used to share this sentiment. But after giving it more thought, I put Rogue One ABOVE Empire. Once you eliminate nostalgia from the equation, there really is no contest.

And while Force Awakens pretty much followed the franchise formula (blow up a big space station? Who knew!), it was very well done and highly enjoyable.

Anyway, I POSed ya.

NowTameInThe603

December 13th, 2017 at 10:51 AM ^

Rogue 1 is not that great. The robot is awesome, Diego Luna is not and then the random shallow characters coming together doesnt do much. I like that they explain the obvious weakness of the deathstar while using a nice story of Jyn and her dad. The rest was meh.

EGD

December 13th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^

Let's use the mgoblog comparison tool:

Jyn Erso >> Luke Skywalker

Cassian Andor = Han Solo

K-2 = Chewbacca

Galen Erso < Imperial Probe Droid

Saw Gerrera = Yoda

Jedda = Hoth

Edu = Cloud City

Bodhi Rook > Lando Calrissian

Chirrut Imwe & Baze Malbus >>> R2D2 & C-3PO

Director Creddick >> series of force-choked Imperial officers

Yavin IV < Dagogah

Princess Leia CGI cameo <<< real Princess Leia major role

Shakespearean/Tennyson ending << carbonite/severed hand ending

Creddick's security detail << AT-AT walkers

early 80s' special effects <<<< modern special effects

Close, but probably still a slight edge to Empire

 

mgobaran

December 13th, 2017 at 1:17 PM ^

He shuts a closet, holds his dads decapitated head, (fast forward 20 years) delivers a captured-by-Darth-Vader Han Solo to Jabba, stands around, gets trapped in a Sarlacc Pit. 

Darth Vader does more in a hallway in Rogue One than Fett does in 3 seperate movies, or anything else that is still considered Star Wars canon.

ijohnb

December 13th, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^

is its own genre.  Given how long the films have been being produced, you can't really compare them in "quality" to any other comparable productions.  What is good acting, special effects, writing, etc. has changed from the 80s to the 90s to the 00s to now.  The films have spawned for decades.  I don't think it is really fair to label them "good" or "bad."  They are "Star Wars films."  That is really the only meaningful qualifier.

Orlando

December 13th, 2017 at 12:28 PM ^

In my opinion, a quality film creates a story where characters deal with real-life, intense conflicts. Some movies that come to mind when I think of quality movies are:
Schindler’s List
The Deer Hunter
The Godfather
The Departed
Rocky
The Meyerowitz Stories (Go Watch on Netflix, it’s great)
I could never enjoy the film Star Wars because I could never picture myself dealing with variations of any of the movie’s conflicts.

chunkums

December 13th, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^

If you've only read three reviews and they were all bad, that's some pretty selective reading considering the fact that it's at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment. With that said, it does make me a bit uneasy that so many mega-companies are starting to own everything. 

chatster

December 13th, 2017 at 4:17 PM ^

Sometimes I get the feeling that in the not-too-distant future, after all the mergers and acquisitions, we might be left with only one choice of a bank, supermarket, telephone company, gas station, clothing manufacturer, internet provider, sporting goods company, drug store, entertainment company, investment fund, healthcare provider, news-and-information source and restaurant. . . . and they’ll all be owned by Amazon.
 
Although, when I have that feeling, I often say, “I don’t know about that.”