# The Disney Fox Sale is bad... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2017, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534 "2017-12-14T20:56:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/21 "2017-12-15T00:57:27Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Does anyone really want the Fantastic Four movie rights? It would be amusing if they tried to reduce antitrust concerns by spinning off the FF rights into a separate company. It would be like one of the “bad banks” tasked with holding toxic assets after the financial crisis. Dr Doom, Galactus, Silver Surfer, Skrulls, etc. They really need some villains. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/22 "2017-12-15T01:06:01Z")
Or they could just make a good Fantastic Four movie. A large part of the reason why they’ve all been bad is that they’ve been rushed, and they’ve been rushed because the contract said that Fox would lose the rights if they didn’t make a movie every so often. Fox hasn’t been caring about making the movies good, just about making them. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/23 "2017-12-15T01:25:10Z")
But too late to integrate the Fantastic Four into the MCU I would think. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/24 "2017-12-15T03:03:04Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > But too late to integrate the Fantastic Four into the MCU I would think. …I think the Fantastic Four would be the easiest to introduce to the MCU by virtue of their origin: spaceship, cosmic rays, powers. So they can just be thrown into the universe at any time without causing much of a ripple. The X-men and mutants will be a much harder task. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/25 "2017-12-15T03:11:55Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > But too late to integrate the Fantastic Four into the MCU I would think. Why do you say that? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/26 "2017-12-15T03:13:40Z")
Do they _need_ to add anyone to the MCU? I get the impression that the Infinity War movie is going to be overstuffed with superheroes already. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/27 "2017-12-15T03:21:47Z")
On the bright side, I think we can look forward to seeing The Simpsons: The Ride at Disney World. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/28 "2017-12-15T03:47:21Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The articles I’m seeing suggest that a big motivation here is to bulk Disney up to compete against Netflix and Amazon, whose streaming services are seen as serious competition for Disney’s broadcast, cable and other channels. (I’m a little skeptical… In other words, if Disney controls a hefty chunk of the content, they can jack up licensing fees and force Netflix et al to dance. Monopoly power occurs with a small number of sellers. This is an anti-competitive play. * * * **Cash out** If Rupert wants to spin some of his properties off, fine. Split up his company (again) and structure the deal so his family has zero control or minority control. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/29 "2017-12-15T03:53:08Z")
Forget licensing fees or selling the content. Disney plans (at least) two streaming services of its own. The first will be called ESPN Plus, and will feature sports. So the regional Fox sports networks (including the YES network, with rights to Yankees games) are going to be a nice addition. And the second will feature stuff from Lucasfilm, Marvel and Pixar. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/30 "2017-12-15T11:26:44Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > But too late to integrate the Fantastic Four into the MCU I would think. First off, it’s unclear if the Fantastic Four are included. Fox licenses the property from some tiny company that still holds the rights. Second, most theories say that the MCU will have a soft reboot after **Infinity War** , when some of the original (and older) characters will be killed or pushed to the background (everyone that has had a trilogy, basically) and the \*\*Secret Wars \*\*storyline will use a new younger line-up, some carrying the mantle of old names (as is apparently happening in the comics). The Fox properties would be folded into MCU2 as reboots, so a new Wolverine and X-men, a fresh start for the Fantastic Four (again), etc. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/31 "2017-12-15T11:49:27Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > On the bright side, I think we can look forward to seeing The Simpsons: The Ride at Disney World. Maybe not, Universal Orlando already has one, the licensing might be specifically locked up to them for rides. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/32 "2017-12-15T12:12:45Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > First off, it’s unclear if the Fantastic Four are included. Fox licenses the property from some tiny company that still holds the rights. Wouldn’t _that_ be included? Whatever the arrangement is by which Fox licenses the property from that tiny company – the deal where, as somebody said upthread, Fox makes a FANTASTIC FOUR movie every so often instead of losing the right to make another such FANTASTIC FOUR movie – doesn’t buying Fox buy _that?_ ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/33 "2017-12-15T13:15:26Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > On the bright side, I think we can look forward to seeing The Simpsons: The Ride at Disney World. > > Maybe not, Universal Orlando already has one, the licensing might be specifically locked up to them for rides. Well, that will be resolved when the inevitable merger of Disney and Comcast occurs, reuniting NBC and ABC for the first time in eighty-something years. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/34 "2017-12-15T13:23:12Z")
Note the Fox Sports channels are **not** part of the [deal](https://qz.com/1156615/disney-fox-rupert-murdoch-marvel-star-wars-the-simpsons-and-planet-of-the-apes-all-under-one-roof/). “If the merger is approved, Disney will own: All of Fox’s film studios (20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, and Fox 2000); Fox’s television studio; FX Networks; National Geographic; Fox’s stake in European broadcaster Sky; Fox’s stake in North American streamer Hulu. Staying with the hollowed out 21st Century Fox is the Fox broadcast network, Fox News, Fox Sports, and Fox Business. With Fox’s film and TV studios and its cable networks, Disney will acquire the rights to literally hundreds of popular television series and movies. (Some of which include Avatar, X-Men, Deadpool, Modern Family and The Simpsons.)” This will give Disney 60% of Hulu. Other content providers may be very unhappy with this and pull out of Hulu. All in all, this will likely lead to more fragmentation of streaming services. No 1 or 2 services to provide almost all of your needs. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/35 "2017-12-15T13:34:29Z")
From what I’m reading, the Fox Sports channel isn’t included but the regional channels are. From the NYT, “To augment ESPN Plus, Disney is adding 21st Century Fox’s chain of 22 regional cable networks dedicated to sports, including the YES Network, which carries New York Yankees games.” ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/36 "2017-12-15T15:38:12Z")
Yep, this is all about building their new movie options and supporting their anticipated 2019 streaming services. It’s been clear now for a while that streaming is the future of episodic television and not the networks so Disney wants to position itself to take advantage of that. I once thought they’d just buy Netflix outright - it seems like something it would do - but now it seems to be aiming at launching their own services. What exclusives that will have is still unclear. Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, 21th Century Fox and so forth. But Touchstone? Fox Searchlight? Blue Sky? Fox Animation? I’d say at this point we don’t know. But combining all of those into one streaming system exclusively would be pretty hard to beat. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/37 "2017-12-15T16:47:57Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I don’t think that is true, and in any case it’s irrelevant. Do you think that Disney is buying Fox for stuff that is fifty or seventy years old? They’re not; they want the recent stuff (The Simpsons, The X-Men movies, Fantastic Four, etc.) and that stuff would be under copyright with or without the recent changes. No, they want the old stuff as well. Here’s the issue: when every idea is copyright, it becomes damn near impossible to create _new_ ideas, new characters, and new stories. This will end with a novelist being sued by Disney because their main character superficially resembles a bit player in a 75-year-old 20th Century Fox movie. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/38 "2017-12-15T22:28:16Z")
Except you can’t copyright an idea. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/39 "2017-12-15T23:11:53Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Maybe not, Universal Orlando already has one, the licensing might be specifically locked up to them for rides. Universal Orlando also has the Marvel characters and rides.(Comic book versions, anyway). ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534/40 "2017-12-16T03:25:59Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Except you can’t copyright an idea. Shhh…don’t interrupt the doomsaying. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disney-fox-sale-is-bad/804534.md?page=3)