Completing the Gauntlet; Why Disney Bought Fox

As we begin 2019, two of the the worlds major conglomerates are set the combine. The merger between Fox and Disney was set to finalise this month, but has now been pushed back to March. With the merger comes the rights to the X-Men franchise, whilst projects such as Dark Phoenix and New Mutants are still going ahead - other projects, X-Force (Essential Deadpool's Avengers) and Gambit have reportedly been scrapped from Fox's development slate.  Allowing Disney to begin a fresh start on introducing the characters into its own universe. 

You would think Disney is only interested in purchasing Fox for the X-Men rights, yet that's not the bigger picture. Disney was strategic in purchasing Marvel back in 2009. Before the merger, Disney had been stronger in appealing to young female demographics with the likes of Hannah Montana and the Disney Princess animations. At the time media analyst David Joyce said the merger "helps give Disney more important exposure to the young male demographic that they have sort of lost some ground with in recent years." Despite having a treasure trove of characters, the well known white male heroes were focused on first. Drawing in the big crowds that Disney never reached. This led to box office gold and as the market was changing and audiences were wanting new and unrepresented superheroes, Marvel began to role out the likes of Black Panther and Captain Marvel. Female led films are now one of the most profitable and between 2014 and 2017 researchers found that the top grossing blockbusters all starred women in leading roles. The merger meant Disney had a deck of cards to play with, and unfolding them became strategic. Not only did they control the cinema landscape, but they also had a big sway in superhero television series.

Fox has big shares in Hulu and with Netflix continuing to dominate the landscape, Disney is attempting to prepare itself as a competitor. Hulu has begun to accelerate year over year and now stands around the 25 million subscriber mark, thanks to shows such as The Handmaids Tale. Compared to Netflix, which has 137 million subscribers, Hulu is still far from hitting the mark. The SVOD landscape is dramatically competitive, and signing up to services is easier than ever. But its even easier to cancel. 

Disney CEO, Bob Iger has hinted towards increasing programming investments in Hulu once the merger is complete; “We aim to use the television production capabilities of the combined company to fuel Hulu with a lot more original programming, original programming that we feel will enable Hulu to compete even more aggressively in the marketplace." Disney as a brand is distinctly different to the content offered on Hulu, as Disney is family friendly focused. The question is will Disney attempt to bring Hulu under their wing or keep it a separate entity? Disney+ is already looking at housing Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, National Geographic and of course Disney. But why then pay for another service, despite both services being supplied by the same conglomerate. Nonetheless, Iger has previously indicated there is a potential to bundle together Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ into one package.  

This news may give hope to the Marvel television shows that were previously on Netflix. Fans have long been trying to understand what is going on, videos such as the one above were saturated on Youtube. As despite my bold claim Daredevil was safe in a previous post - it too was soon axed. Would Marvel purposefully sabotage its successful shows ready for it's merger? With being more mature and gory, they definitely don't belong on the Disney + platform. As they are currently developing a Loki and a separate Vision and Scarlett Witch spin off series. There is even rumours of a Lady Sif series. Perhaps the shows could be revived and brought onto Hulu where the Marvel show Runaways premieres. Time will only tell, Netflix is still planning on releasing The Punisher Season 2 and Jessica Jones Season 3, yet they are more than likely to be canned after they premiere. 

In order for Disney to succeed in the SVOD marketplace they need to focus on long term retention. Marvel so far has done incredibly well to maintain its audience over 22 films, and their strategic releasing of content has been successful. Now Disney has got more content and audiences to play with they need to offer a steady stream of content that allows for repetitive income. They are now angling on targeting multiple generational audiences with its purchasing of Fox. 

“Overall, Disney is picking up content that appeals to the millennial audience and, most importantly, an audience who engages with these brands and collections in a very enthusiastic manner,” Jim Fosina, CEO of Fosina Marketing Group, told Observer. “In a world where the value of a media company is represented by its ability to create content that engages and retains market-able audiences, Disney is merging with the ‘mother-lode’ of great brands and content.

Disney isn't the only brand to begin compiling a massive library of content. These days there is something for everyone and companies have to focus on the diversity of the audiences tastes. Other companies such as Apple, HBO, Facebook and even Youtube which use to be a grassroots video library; are all popping up in the SVOD field. With Disney+ coming in late 2019 after the merger is complete, the next few years will determine how the theatrical and television landscape gets re-drawn and whether other studios will attempt to merge to compete in the streaming world. The merger would leave Disney/Fox on a value of around $200B and is much bigger compared to Comcast ($151B) and Netflix at ($111B) - the merger is much smaller compared to tech companies. Apple currently stands at around $745B, perhaps Disney should be less worried about rival studios and more concerned about technology companies. If they were to being channelling their funds into productions as Netflix has been doing, but on a larger scale, then a new revolution may begin.