
Does the T stand for Tiberius?
Most of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox empire is being flogged to Disney for $66bn, including large chunks of the film and telly businesses. An announcement from the Walt Disney Company, as old Walt’s empire is formally known, said that a “definitive agreement” had been entered into between 21st Century Fox and Disney. “ …
I hardly think a children's entertainer is going to have twat as a middle name, you wouldn't get to the interview stage.
Well, a fair number of childrens entertainers from the 70s and 80's proved to be poor choices in retrospect, despite mostly only having mildly silly names and only somewhat ridiculous looks....
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Maybe we can get a smashup with the Alien franchise.
Wookies vs. Aliens.
vs. Goofy
on Tron bikes.
and Captain Hook is coming too.
Mickey isn’t actually the Disney corporate spokesman. Just in case anyone out there was dim enough to take that seriously.
WUH? DUH?
Ok, it's the 21st century and suicidal "millenials" are coming online, but still...
I wonder what Murdoch will do with the money ?
I don't know, but AFAIAA, he won't be taking it to any afterlife. Maybe he spend it all on gold, and have his body cast at the centre of a vast ingot of the stuff?
Then the rest of humanity could bury the ingot under a public convenience.
I noticed that Fox news was not included in the deal, I wonder if that is because Disney didn't want to be spending money on the pile of crap that passes as a news channel.
Since news channels are costly to run and don't usually make money for TV networks how long it will it survive without the financial backing of the rest of the Fox media empire to prop it up remains to be seen.
I wonder if Murdoch knows something we don't why he is keen to get rid of his assets, with all the recent allegations of sexual misconduct going around the media industry, perhaps he thinks he could be in the firing line next and wants to sell before shares of Fox plummeted on some allegations against him.
I noticed that Fox news was not included in the deal, I wonder if that is because Disney didn't want to be spending money on the pile of crap that passes as a news channel.
There might be regulatory issues that prevent them from keeping it.
They might also not want to be involved in news broadcasting at all, no matter what the political and other nature of the station.
I assume that Fox "News" and such aren't included because Disney already owns the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network, which owns 8 stations on its own dime, and serves 230-some-odd affiliate stations -- making it the largest broadcaster by station-count in the country -- and figures that adding MORE stations might invite more anti-trust scrutiny that it's ALREADY going to get.
(Also, ABC's national news operation is generally pretty centrist and well respected by all but the most partisan viewers and critics and why would they want to risk that by stirring Fox "News" into the pot?)
I agree with others that the right-vs-left Fox News vs. WDC (as a whole) could have been a factor, but I imagine the ownership of competing TV affiliates was the potential deal-breaker from the FCC.
I'm glad, because on the sports side I can only watch my favorite BIG (Big Ten) football teams (that's collegiate gridiron, folks) on either ESPN/ABC or Fox Sports / Big Ten Network (Fox owns half of BTN; the conference owns the other half). ESPN/ABC rarely carry Big Ten, and when they do it seems the commentards are biased towards the non-Big Ten opponent no matter what. Fox/BTN's visuals aren't as good, but at least they try to show some love for the teams, and lately the school marching bands too. (Woo! Go band!!!) As much as I dislike the current situation, making BTN (and Fox Sports) go away would be a "bad thing".
I also like pro hockey, of which ESPN cares NOTHING about, and NBC Sports is as lousy as ESPN above. I'll keep Fox Sport's hockey coverage, thank you. (Except for those wonderful times my local team happens to be on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, despite -- obviously -- not being Canadian. My TV service includes the nearest CBC channel. The resolution isn't always great but HNIC is full-HD and awesome.)
Now excuse me, I have a New Year's Day bowl game to prepare for. I'm thinking a big (crock-)pot of chili. If the game is at noon, I better start the day before and have it simmering by midnight (6 hours minimum, 9 hours desired, 12 hours best).
I suspect there are two reasons and it's a combination of the two.
First being that Murdoch came from a news background, news is what he knows and disrupting industries is something he has done in the past, so he sees a future in the changing news market and has an idea about how he can benefit from that change, and that idea requires money.
The second is that Disney already owns some news and sports networks (proper news, not like Fox*) and wouldn't be interested in the deal if they were included - ESPN is losing enough money thanks, and the possible antitrust implications of the news networks are also a no-no. Therefore if the news and sport were included, Disney wouldn't be interested.
* Before anyone trolls me, Fox were taken to court in 1994. Their defence was that unlike other news stations they are not obliged to tell the truth as they are under an "opinion" licence, not a "news" licence like CNN or MSNBC. They won. Therefore I feel completely justified calling Fox "the home of fake news", as they have admitted in court that they make things up and are legally entitled to do so.
"Their defence was that unlike other news stations they are not obliged to tell the truth as they are under an "opinion" licence, not a "news" licence like CNN or MSNBC. They won. Therefore I feel completely justified calling Fox "the home of fake news", as they have admitted in court that they make things up and are legally entitled to do so."
They really ought to have a "For entertainment purposes only" disclaimer on screen at all times.
I now refuse to pay for it because it's American owned, expensive and shit
And likely to be much more expensive soon, as Disney try and recoup the billions of dollars of "goodwill" they've likely acquired.
Any existing Sky customer celebrating that they soon won't be contributing to the old scrote's coffers might want to brace themselves for two or three years of double digit price rises (as happened when Virginmedia got bought out by Libertyglobal).
Okay -- so -- now, The CopyRight should exist FOREVER company just bought .....
oh never mind. Likely someone has said it in one of the movies that Disney now owns and I'll end up driving rendering clusters in a basement in california for $3/hr 19hr/day 363 days a year for the rest of my life if I continue.
You must not of been paying attention. Howard the Duck already did join (if you look carefully enough, though I may have mistaken a different duck?).
I think all the Xmen are lampshaded in Avengers due to the appearance of the Inhumans. Thus making them a different "universe", and not of the in universe alternate universe type... oh, it's rather complicated.
"Bob Iger, chief exec of Disney, whose tenure is being guaranteed until 2021 as a result of the deal, said in a canned quote: 'We’re honoured and grateful that Rupert Murdoch has entrusted us with the future of businesses he spent a lifetime building.' ”
I'll bet he DIDN'T say that.
Is the "...honoured..." El Reg's response to all the Brit readers complaining about USian spellings creeping over their garden walls or did the Disney press release really use the superfluous "u"?
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At least there's be something approaching competition for a little bit. In my area, I can either have mostly reliable broadband with a 1 TB month cap and a promised guarenteed speed rate for under one hundred american notes, or something approaching the same speeds without any promises that I'll actually get it (aDSL), no reliability guarentee (oh a bird sat on the line and you lost your internet? sucks to be you!), the same data cap, for about the same price. I've not even looked at wireless internet for the house, except that while it's not great (worse than a hard wired connection), it's at least not Canada's wireless arrangement. (Pay by the BYTE, and crap service at that.)
Fox allowed The Simpsons to frequently make fun of Fox itself.
Disney has announced that The Simpsons will be allowed to continue that tradition. The Simpsons will still be allowed to criticise Fox. They'll get shitcanned if they even think of making fun of Disney.
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He'll take all the "News" operations private, that includes the assorted print operations he still owns.
Once he has them private the shackles will be totally off in regards what fake cr*pola he'll publish/broadcast.
He was always a wet ink guy at heart.
As an Australian from the home town of his original paper (the execrable and unlamented "News"), it is with great relief that I state that he is no longer a "digger" (although "dirty" he may well be in a number of senses), having relinquished Australian citizenship in order to buy US companies. And I'd go further and add, with some feeling, that he's not just "not Australian", he's "un-Australian". An utterly malignant individual.
This message is addressed to The People of The United States of America -
In case you've lived under a rock for the last 2 generations, Rupert Murdoch and his evil minions has poisoned the United States of America with divisive lies that millions have taken as truth due to regular repetition of the lies. "It must be true, it's on TV!"
The FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS Murdoch is getting from this sale should go directly into the coffers of the United States of America for the benefit of its citizens, nowhere else!
Happy with traitor Trump as President? Thank Murdoch, his twisted lieutenant, Roger Ailes, and their many immoral spokespeople paid to squirt lies daily to The People of America with a smile.
As long as we're hypothetically imprisoning professional liars, poisonous propagandists, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Alex Jones and many others should also be residing in penitentiaries.
It should be against the law to repeatedly lie to The People because there are many among us who believe that verbal crap.
Do you like the way America is now? Like the tension between the red and blue states?
Like the way the religious are crippling public schools with religion?
Like all the haters that think they're in the right in limiting the basic freedoms of other Americans?
If you do, then you've been fooled and poisoned too. Way to go.
I will celebrate on the day of Rupert Murdoch's demise.
Put me in a room with him, give me a loaded pistol, and I'll be happy to spend the rest of my life in a prison for bringing about his end. I'll plead righteous insanity.
Murdoch has ruined millions of lives. He's no better than Hitler, Pol Pot, etc.
While I'm jabbering, DON'T elect any more lawyers to political positions!
Lawyers are programmed in school to WIN no matter who or what gets hurt.
You DON'T want that kind of politician making the laws or voting on critical issues!
NO MORE LAWYERS IN POLITICS! Got me??
REPEAL THE GOD DAMNED 'CITIZENS UNITED' law and ruling that has put the greedy corporations in the driver's seat of our governments (federal, state and local) if you want a nation by, for, and of The People again!
Oh dear, I've just realised this probably means Disney now have the rights to it (they went from Sinclair to Amstrad to Sky but Amstrad let anyone copy it if they credited them and Sky didn't change that).
Hopefully Disney's fleet of IP lawyers won't notice what they've got. If they do they might not rest until the whole of the Internet is scrubbed of the ROM images.