Comcast Beats Disney for Sky

by Ray Keating

News/Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

September 24, 2018

Part of the unfinished story of the Disney purchase of Fox’s entertainment assets was the battle between Comcast and Fox for Sky satellite television, with its 23 million subscribers in Europe. Over the weekend, Comcast came out on top in an auction.

Comcast won with a $40 billion offer, versus $35 billion from Fox/Disney. Sky shareholders have until October 11 to approve the deal.

Other questions now emerge. Namely, what will Fox/Disney do with the 39 percent of Sky it owns? And what about Hulu, which with the Disney-Fox deal, Disney will own 60 percent, Comcast 30 percent and AT&T 10 percent?

In these bidding wars, it’s interesting to note that Comcast forced Disney to up its bid price for Fox’s assets from $53 billion to $71 billion, while Disney/Fox pushed up the price of Sky for Comcast from $32 billion to $40 billion.

Of course, shareholders of Fox and Sky came out quite pleased. Looking ahead, we’ll see how these big-dollar deals do on the seemingly ever-changing entertainment business landscape.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels, with the two latest books being Reagan Country: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel and Heroes and Villains: A Pastor Stephen Grant Short Story. He can be contacted at raykeating@keatingreports.com.