Why Are Disney and Comcast Battling Over Fox and Sky?: QuickTake

What began as a simple bid in late 2016 by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. for the part of Sky Plc it doesn’t already own sparked a transcontinental bidding war when Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp. joined the chase for Sky, a British broadcaster. Now Fox finds itself in a tug-of-war between rival bidders, Disney and Comcast, as a rapidly shifting media landscape propels one of the more intriguing global media battles in decades. When AT&T Inc. won antitrust clearance to buy Time Warner Inc., and the last U.K. regulator signed off on Murdoch’s Sky bid (with one big condition), the endgame seemed near. Yet the outcome is still very much up in the air.

Two entertainment giants, Disney and Comcast, are fighting over Fox and Sky for one big reason: internet streaming. Movies, TV shows and other entertainment offered by Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Hulu have grown so popular that Americans are abandoning cable-TV subscriptions in droves, eating into media companies’ profits. Owning Fox would give Comcast or Disney iconic entertainment assets -- from “The Simpsons” to the “X-Men” franchise -- that would make their own streaming TV services more compelling. Fox’s 30 percent stake in Hulu would also give Comcast or Disney majority ownership over one of the few real Netflix competitors, since each already owns 30 percent of Hulu.