Disney is about to get its own happily ever after with Hulu.
Comcast has dropped out of its bidding war for most of Fox’s assets, conceding it to Disney.
Disney and Fox shareholders are expected to approve the deal on July 27, USA Today reported. Disney will also gain access to Fox’s Star India network and streaming service, giving the American media giant a new audience of about 700 million.
Meanwhile, Comcast is still in hot pursuit of Sky.
Here’s what you need to know about Disney owning most of Fox – and Comcast’s bid for Sky.
Control over Hulu
With Comcast out of the running, Disney is all but ready to take over Fox’s properties and claim a 60% stake in Hulu, the “hidden gem” of the Fox deal.
With Hulu under its belt, Disney will have access to a plethora of instant video and can branch into data-driven advertising on it with unprecedented depth. The deal would allow Disney to step its game up and compete with Netflix.
Disney already has its own data platform
In August 2017, Disney acquired the majority ownership of BAMTech LLC after pulling all its movies from Netflix. BAMTech uses machine learning to power all of Disney’s direct-to-consumer video products and will be used to support the company’s yet-to-be-named streaming service.
Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger had said during a previous earnings call that BAMTech would help Disney work with its audience data and power ad opportunities. Specifically, it would be used to power ESPN’s app.
How will BAMTech co-exist with Hulu, which has some overlapping capabilities? That remains to be seen.
Disney recently restructured its sales organization
In March, Disney launched a direct-to-consumer division to focus on its stake in Hulu as well as its ESPN+ streaming service. It also rebundled its other segments into three categories: parks; experiences and consumer products; media networks and studio entertainment. With new management in place, Disney can more effectively build out its streaming services with BAMTech as the engine.
Sky would provide Comcast with international influence – and advanced ad tech
Although it’s out of the game for 21st Century Fox, Comcast is still pursuing European broadcaster Sky, which would give the company an international presence and access to a wealth of data. Fox owns a 39% stake in Sky, which reaches about 23 million customers across Europe.
Sky has its own programmatic platform, Sky Audio Visual Exchange, and an addressable ad platform, Sky AdSmart. Comcast, which owns the FreeWheel ad server, is similarly tech savvy.
