Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-28688910-20160816013512/@comment-620704-20180319220031

Brodie999 wrote: Actually, I've talked to Mark Hughes Forbes guy?

he said a purchase of Fox would make Paramount and/or Sony purchases even more appetising for Disney, because at that point the additional franchies and back library of content would mean that Disney's own new  streaming service could instantly have such a massive library of content while denying that library of content to Netflix (imagine the implications of losing all Fox, Sony, Paramount, Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm movies and TV shows) could allow Disney's service - a combination of the streaming service and FX - to instantly rival Netflix. Which means the advantages of Disney buying Netflix decline over the long haul. The problem here is the anti-trust committee. We're not sure yet that the FOX purchase will come through, and here we are talking about buying two more majors ON TOP OF THAT. With market shares of Paramount, Sony and Fox, Disney will control over 50% of the cinema market and that is by definition is the breach of the law.

Granted, If Disney bought Fox, Paramount and Sony, they'd be spending a massive amount of money, so Netflix would probably be too much of a added expensive purchase anyway. Right now, they've spent more than enough on FOX alone. Disney is a rich company, yet their resources are limited too. If, let's say, Sony goes up for sale in a year, the first bidder in line would be Comcast (Universal), who actually outbid Disney for Fox (Murdoch just preferred the Disney stocks).

If Netflix reaches its maximum potential for subscribers and growth slows considerably while their debts come due, and if Disney's competitng streaming service is a success (which seems obviously likely), then the price for Netflix could decline while the value of Disney (and their cash in hand) will inevitably rise. In that situation, several years into the future (maybe a decade?) a buyout of Netflix could then become the endgame for Disney where whatever major deals and original content etc. Netflix has built up for their own library - plus their existing subscibers who aren't already Disney subscribers would be appealing and could be merged into the Disney service to create one enormous streaming service with the largest content library and orignal content creation on the planet. Disney is planning their service as family-friendly (no R stuff), while Netflix gravitate more towards adult-orientated content (not exclusively of course, but still). They are not _exactly_ competing for the same audience. If I'm not mistaken, Disney will have the largest share of Hulu after FOX purchase. If anything, they could fuel all adult content (Alien, Predator, etc) into it.

And again, having one super-service might be facing some anti-trust issues.

Besides, Sony is already rumored to be up for sale and Right now, it's just a speculation based on the appointment of new CEO.

Disney is the favourite to buy them. As I explained above, Comcast is more likely.

They want Spider-Man fully back, so if Sony isn't bought by another company at the time Disney finishes its acqusition of Fox, their franchises would add nicely to Disney's list of IPs. Well, if Sony will simply put Spidey rights up for sale, then sure, but that's not gonna happen.