20th Century Fox and Disney Having Conversations

Posted by Bret on 11/06/17 at 04:31 PM Category: Disney

Today, CNBC broke the news that 20th Century Fox and Disney have been having discussions, specifically about the future of 20th Century Fox and the properties it owns.

21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co., leaving behind a media company tightly focused on news and sports, according to people familiar with the situation.

According to CNBC, Fox has taken stock of the media landscape, and has determined that they are not positioned well to compete in the arena of distributing digital content. Fox feels that they should focus more on their news and sports divisions, and essentially get out of the film distribution business.

Disney, for their part, is taking that same battle head on, against other giants like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. They've already announced that they're consolidating their Star Wars and Marvel media distribution into a new digital streaming initiative for 2019. Buying the 20th Century Fox film and distribution assets would be a feather in their cap as they ramp up their strategy.

CNBC points out that Disney would not necessarily be doing itself any favors by purchasing Fox's News or Sports divisions, since Disney already owns ABC and ESPN. Disney would likely be blocked from making such an acquisition due to broadcasting rules.

It is also made clear by CNBC that the talks are not currently happening, but had happened in the recent past:

The talks have taken place over the last few weeks and there is no certainty they will lead to a deal. The two sides are not currently talking at this very moment, but given the on again, off again nature of the talks, they could be revisited.

So what does this mean for Star Wars fans?

For one thing, Polygon points out that it could mean the return of the 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare to the beginning of all Star Wars films, and argues that this is as much a part of Star Wars lore and tradition as anything else in the films.

Perhaps more dramatically, ARStechnica has a nice in-depth analysis of the possibility of the remastered, unedited versions of the OT. (Definitely check out that article!)

And as a side note, Marvel fans will most certainly know that Fox currently owns the distribution rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four. So if things go down, the MCU could get a lot more crowded.

Keep in mind, CNBC explicitly stated that the round of talks has passed, and there is nothing currently being discussed. This could mean the conversation is dead, or it could be revived at any time.