In a recent interview with CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Iger explained the real reason why the merge between Disney and 20th Century Fox occurred in the first place. One speculation was so that Disney could finally acquire the rights of other Marvel characters that were previously owned by Fox and use them in future films. According to Comicbook.com, however, the main reason why Disney bought Fox for $71 billion dollars is because of Disney+.
It’s no secret that this new streaming service is a big deal for Disney. They even purchased BAMTech, a company specializes in streaming media, which initiated Iger and Fox’s Rupert Murdoch to start talking about the possibility of merging together.
Here is what Iger had to say:
“The opportunity to buy Fox first came up later that year. In fact, just a few months after the board approved us buying the majority share of BAMTech — which was done for one reason, to go into the direct-to-consumer business — Rupert and I sat down and talked about a transaction.”
“We would not have done that transaction had we not decided to go in this direction because — if we hadn’t, we would have been looking at that business and through a traditional lens: ‘Oh, we’re buying TV channels. We’re buying more movie-making capability, et cetera. But by the time the acquisition opportunity came up, and we knew we were going in this space, we evaluated what we were buying through this new lens of: ‘Wow, what could National Geographic mean to us?’
“What could it mean having access to [Fox’s] library, not to monetize it through traditional means, but to do it through this? Bam! I mean, the light bulb went off.”
Disney+ will be delivering massive libraries of content to its subscribers, including classic animated films, live-action films, Pixar movies, the complete Star Wars and Marvel collection, and now Fox’s most popular franchises. The cost for the service is extremely affordable compared to its other competitors, at $6.99/month, and is set to launch November 12th.
Source : ComicBook
probably at the movies.
