Disney to buy most of 20th Century Fox for $52 billion

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

As far as blockbuster deals go, you can't do better than this. In its efforts to consolidate a roster of properties in order to counter the surging popularity of Netflix, Disney will be buying most of 20th Century Fox for an unprecedented $52 billion dollars.

The Mouse House stands to gain a number of marquee properties from Rupert Murdoch's Fox that it can very well spin off into movies, toys and merchandising and even theme park rides. We're talking huge properties including cable channels FX and National Geographic as well as Fox's stakes in streaming service Hulu, which positions it nicely against Netflix. Fox will retain the mosre serious side of their portfolio of products including Fox News, Fox Sports and Fox Business Networks.

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Now this might be the coolest place to watch ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

Disney

You might watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi in IMAX or Atmos or whatever high-tech theatre you want to catch it in. But nothing beats this special screening of the movie. NASA has confirmed with io9 that The Last Jedi will be streaming on the International Space Station. The movie will be shown in English as all crew members can speak both English and Russian. Now, when this’ll happen, there isn’t a timetable yet but according to NASA’s Dan Hout, the ISS gets movies as digital files that they can watch on a laptop or a “standard projector” that’s aboard the space station.

Sources claim Disney and Fox are close to reaching a deal, might announce plans next week

WDWNT.com

We reported earlier last month that Disney and 21^st Century Fox have been in talks for the former to acquire Fox’s studio and television production assets, with Fox retaining its news and sports arms. And report has it the two are close to reaching an agreement, even with Comcast in the picture, and sources claim the deal could be announced as early as next week. The deal will have Disney owning entertainment assets like 20^th Century Fox film and TV studios, FX Networks and National Geographic Cannels cable groups, regional Fox Sports and 39% interest in Euro satcaster Sky, as well as international channels like Star India outlet. Disney is also supposedly buying out Fox’s 30% interest in Hulu, which is seen as Disney’s initial step to building its standalone streaming service. The deal is expected to be an all-stock transaction with Fox’s assets valued at around US$60 billion.

The move is also seen as a way to resolve Disney’s CEO succession issue. Bob Iger has had to extend his contract twice since setting his retirement back in 2015. But with the likes of 21^st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch and 21^st Century Fox President Peter Rice in the mix, they’re seen as possible candidates to replace Iger.

Source:  Variety + CNBC 

Disney CEO says streaming service will be priced ‘substantially below’ Netflix when it launches

Some of the current Disney offerings on Netflix

We know that Disney plans to pull out its titles from Netflix when it launches its own service in 2019. What we don’t know is what pricing will be like. Now, we get a bit of an idea straight from the company’s chairman and CEO. Bob Iger mentioned at Disney’s latest quarterly earnings call that the monthly subscription cost for Disney’s streaming service will be “substantially below” Netflix’s price because they have “substantially less volume” in terms of the amount of content they will have as compared to Netflix. Although we don’t know which tier of Netflix is referring to as there are a number of them. But we have a bit of a wait before we find out.

Source: MacRumors