Fanboys around the world rejoiced upon hearing the news that Disney is reportedly in the process of buying out a large percentage of 20th Century Fox, as the merger would open the geeky heavenly gates and allow for a long over due true Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and so on. While that is a possibility should the buy-out happen, that is likely far from the minds of the powers that be right now. What is on top of mind for Disney is Netflix, More specifically, how to compete with them.
When Disney announced they were pulling their titles from Netflix to start their own streaming service (and subsequently purchased a majority ownership of video provider BAMTech), it seamed it might be a bit of a blow to popular steaming service. Disney’s still unnamed service would be the new streaming home for Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Disney Animation movies as well as programs from their television networks the Disney Channel, Disney Jr, and Disney XD, which is a fair amount of programming. Netflix has become a major player in the business, and Disney, it seems, has been getting worried.
Apparently the House of Mouse has decided to double down, as the acquisition would give Disney access to all content from 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox Animation, as well as entertainment networks like FX, FXM and National Geographic, and international assets such as Star and Sky. 20th Century Fox would still own the FOX Network, as well as FOX Sports and FOX News. The studio is said to believe that with a more tightly focus on those properties, they could compete more effectively in the current marketplace. The Federal Communications Commission may have a few things to say about one of the largest entertainment studios buying one of the other largest entertainment studios, as it would leave only a few studios producing most of the films.
If this tend continues, we may see a future similar to the old Hollywood studio systems, in which stars were contracted to specific studios, and each studio owned their own line of movie theaters in which to show their films. Who knows if that would be good or bad, but it would be pretty nice to see the 20th Century Fox Star Wars opening again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgcPhuIELbg
Source: Variety, Forbes, Quartz Media, Thrill List