[Dr Kain]

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Originally Posted by Trivial Psychic

1. The government still has yet to sign off on it. Until they approve, it doesn't matter what Disney and Fox agreed to, someone else can swoop in and make an offer. This sort of thing happens in sports all the time, where trades and signings are agreed to in term, but end up nullified because there was no approval by the league and whatever their CBA was.

True, anything can still happen.

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2. Why would Marvel get their characters back? Fox owns the media rights, and until Fox relinquishes them, or is purchased, they are owned by Fox. Is there something in the terms of the original arrangement that says that Marvel would retain in the event of a Fox Media collapse or sale? Michael Jackson owned the rights to the Beatles for years, but Paul McCartney didn't just magically get them back when he died. MJ's estate did, who in turned used them as collateral to pay off Michael's debt and ensure his charities and children were taken care of.

From what has been stated through various sources, yes, Fox's contracts state that if the company is ever liquidated, sold off, or shut down, all rights return to their original copyright holder.

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3. Comcast is already willing to front 8 billion more than Disney, and up it's bid to 100 billion dollars should Disney wants to start a bidding war for it. And in cash no less. Say what you will, but that's not chump change. This aggressiveness by Comcast says to me that there could very well be some stake in the Marvel franchises, because why the hell someone would want to put up that kind of money for Fox's news and sport networks (which Disney was planning to scuttle anyways after the acquisition) is beyond me. They're certainly not interested because they see a goldmine in the Alien and Predator franchises.

If Disney wants it, Disney gets it. End of story. You don't fuck with Disney. You bow down to salute your lord and master mouse.

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4. I'm not sure what happened in the cases of Paramount or Time Warner, but lots of network providers (cable companies, as well companies like Hulu and Netflix, which can be loosely affiliated as such) are creating their own studios in order to brand their own original programming. Just the way the world is going. Why pay someone to do something for you when you can just as easily do it yourself.

So when Adelphia got into legal trouble on the East Coast, Time Warner purchased their company, becoming the sole cable provider in Buffalo NY. They then decided that since Fox was a competitor that anyone that wanted to keep their Fox stations would have to pay an additional $25 a month on their cable bill. I'm not sure what exactly happened after that, but from my understand it was declared illegal and never happened.

As for Paramount, well Viacom, they decided that Direct TV needed to pay more for their stations, so Comedy Central, MTV, and every other network owned by Viacom were blocked to Direct TV owners. They couldn't even watch them online because people had to log in with their cable provider to watch them.

If Comcast buys Fox, what's to stop them from pulling that same shit with WB owned networks? Hell, I don't even get Disney XD as it is because Comcast wants me to pay extra for it. Thus, I had to download my Star Wars Rebels episodes (thank the gods it's done).