Disney must divest themselves of Fox-owned Regional Sports Networks.
The Department of Justice has given the Walt Disney Company the go ahead to purchase 21st Century Fox. though the go ahead actually comes with one caveat. They have to sell off the regional sports networks currently affiliated with 21st Century Fox.
The process for this is a little weird, though. The DOJ filed a court complaint to block the merger today. Simultaneously, they also filed a proposed final judgement that they would let the merger proceed under their conditions (selling off the regional sports networks). This is actually pretty standard procedure, but it does seem odd to the layman.
Disney has already stated that they’re more than happy to ditch the RSNs to get the merger to go through. According to the filing, Disney would be required to divest themselves of those networks within 90 days of acquisition.
The news comes after of ruminations that Comcast was putting in their bid to acquire 21st Century Fox. Fox was apparently reluctant to sell to the cable giant, though. The current deal gives them some good reason to reject the Comcast deal.
From the Department of Justice announcement:
American consumers have benefitted from head-to-head competition between Disney and Fox’s cable sports programming that ultimately has prevented cable television subscription prices from rising even higher,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s settlement will ensure that sports programming competition is preserved in the local markets where Disney and Fox compete for cable and satellite distribution.
Source: Ars Technia
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