the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Disney SVOD- is all ages
Hulu- would be their adult oriented service a la HBO.
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News Disney and Fox come to terms -- announcement soon; huge IP acquisition
- Thread starter ohioguy
- Start date
Hulu- would be their adult oriented service a la HBO.
mikejs78
Well-Known Member
No, because since they will already own Hulu, the government won't make them divest for starting a new service. It's not like Hulu even has a near monopoly in streaming... It's not even the #1 provider...
The problem Disney will have with aiming Hulu to adults is the reason for Hulu's recent huge growth is the free Hulu service for Sprint unlimited customers including children on family plans.
Rodan75
Well-Known Member
Yeah. I have a lot of questions on future Hulu positioning, I don’t buy it will be adults only. Even HBO isn’t adults only.
Overall the future of Disney Branded family content vs Disney owned but not branded family content is going to be weird. Things like FX content will be easy to differentiate.
I also see an OTP package of Disney owned channels. That is why owning Sky News is so important.
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
DIS SVOD+Hulu plans?
matt9112
Well-Known Member
i find it funny that you guys are getting all worked up about disney doing something that in the best case scenarios has no effects on parks and resorts and in the worst leads to reallocated funding to help pay this deal off faster etc. its no secret that the parks seems to be the easiest horse to beat.
You're probably right in that it will have little to no effect on the parks but it's pretty obvious that most fans of Disney parks are, by extension, fans of Disney as a whole. Naturally this will generate interest for many as it's huge.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
i agree however as i pointed out best case scenario is our parks are not touched....but and maybe somebody smarter than me can chime in i strongly believe cuts and or fund reallocation or cost redistribution will occur. simple staff cuts and price increases (i mean the latter happens anyway) but possibly a more severe price increase etc? i think from an orlando theme park stand point its really a no win scenario. furthermore i believe the vast majority of people in this thread are not too price sensitive so these potential negatives don't really change there tune.
shareholders will want disney to begin to cut this debt down asap.
bartholomr4
Well-Known Member
Not smarter than you.... My 2 cents....if you take the prior 3 acquisitions Iger has made (Pixar, Marvel and Lucas), his approach is to let the creative talent run their own shops. He challenges them to find common integration points with the parks, networks etc. I would expect him to do the same with this. I think overlapping operations in Finance, Legal, Real-Estate, Technology etc will be consolidated, but that is unlikely to affect the parks very much....
An arguement can be made....the Fox acquisition will free up a number of the Marvel IP which could be added to the Parks in Orlando. If Comcast is successful in acquiring Sky, I can see a trade of IP between the two companies (Comcast wanting to reduce debt after Sky agrees to release Hulu to Disney, as part of that deal, Disney includes the freedom to integrate the Universal Marvel Characters into the Orlando Parks etc.)....
I also see a number of profitable and functioning Fox Properties (I.e. Fox Animation and Blue Sky as examples) which I could see Disney Selling instead of shutting down.
As for the debt load, remember 50% of the price being paid is in Stock (which does not a debt). With the sale of the Regional Sports Networks, and the 39% of Sky to Comcast (assuming Disney does not win Sky), the debt load will smaller as a result of these sales (the sales also include the associated debts of the RSN’s etc). Disney has been planning to repurchase a number of their shares..... A delay in the repurchase will allow them to reduce the debt quickly.
Bottom line, I think Disney will have the flexibility to reduce their debt load without cutting investments in the parks. If the new streaming services, Hulu and ESPN quickly get to a break even, there is an reasonable expectation that Disney as a company will have more money to invest in the parks.... To your point.... That’s the gamble ahead and what to watch.
An arguement can be made....the Fox acquisition will free up a number of the Marvel IP which could be added to the Parks in Orlando. If Comcast is successful in acquiring Sky, I can see a trade of IP between the two companies (Comcast wanting to reduce debt after Sky agrees to release Hulu to Disney, as part of that deal, Disney includes the freedom to integrate the Universal Marvel Characters into the Orlando Parks etc.)....
I also see a number of profitable and functioning Fox Properties (I.e. Fox Animation and Blue Sky as examples) which I could see Disney Selling instead of shutting down.
As for the debt load, remember 50% of the price being paid is in Stock (which does not a debt). With the sale of the Regional Sports Networks, and the 39% of Sky to Comcast (assuming Disney does not win Sky), the debt load will smaller as a result of these sales (the sales also include the associated debts of the RSN’s etc). Disney has been planning to repurchase a number of their shares..... A delay in the repurchase will allow them to reduce the debt quickly.
Bottom line, I think Disney will have the flexibility to reduce their debt load without cutting investments in the parks. If the new streaming services, Hulu and ESPN quickly get to a break even, there is an reasonable expectation that Disney as a company will have more money to invest in the parks.... To your point.... That’s the gamble ahead and what to watch.
TwilightZone
Well-Known Member
I think most of us are more concerned about comcast getting fox than any of the things that may happen to the parks because of this.
It's all I have been seeing anyways.
So independent they forget to leverage their most popular and profitable franchise in the parks.
"Hey, Bob, with Marvel making billions, it must also be making bank in the parks, huh?"
"Uhh... hold on a minute. <pulls out cell phone> Hey, Bob, it's Bob, what Marvel IPs do we have in the parks?"
".... oh f......"
".... oh f....."
And that's how we got Mission Breakout.
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
The problem is that those three previous acquisitions were of much smaller companies. Even if they don’t acquire Sky, this is a massive expansion of the company’s operations and it has and will change what the Walt Disney Company is going forward.
Fox’s assets, not just the studio, really don’t lend themselves to Disney’s existing base. This is ultimately about expanding their international TV business, with or without Sky, to counter the declines in profits at ESPN and “compete against Netflix”.
And here's another key issue nobody's mentioned yet -- when Disney owns Fox, think how many more gate passes will flood the system!
HauntedMansionFLA
Well-Known Member
Did Disney finally buy Fix or is it still a waiting game??
Rodan75
Well-Known Member
Still a waiting game, but looks unlikely for Comcast to make another Fox bid.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/16/comcast-unlikely-to-raise-fox-bid-focused-on-sky-sources.html
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Good point.
Looks like they’ll have to go back to the days where they gave out a handful of tickets to each employee. Plus the addition of prescheduling your days in the park.
I am looking forward to the stockholders meeting on the 27th to find out what the plans are for Fox, Sky and the debt. Based on the CNBC reporting it appears Disney may not bid anymore for Sky.
Now if Disney does not bid anymore on Sky and decide to sell the 39% to Comcast for 39% of the $34 billion they would receive $13.26 billion. Add to that about 15 billion if they sell the RSNs for cash. That totals 28.26 billion of just about $10 billion less than they have to borrow to buy Fox. Then add the $14 billion in debt the are assuming from Fox and subtract the $20 billion stock buyback program they eliminated and the result if in one year they will only owe 4 billion dollars more than they do now and their leverage ratio will be lower than it is today. This is not what I want them to do because I want expansion and a RSN spinoff.
Now if Disney does not bid anymore on Sky and decide to sell the 39% to Comcast for 39% of the $34 billion they would receive $13.26 billion. Add to that about 15 billion if they sell the RSNs for cash. That totals 28.26 billion of just about $10 billion less than they have to borrow to buy Fox. Then add the $14 billion in debt the are assuming from Fox and subtract the $20 billion stock buyback program they eliminated and the result if in one year they will only owe 4 billion dollars more than they do now and their leverage ratio will be lower than it is today. This is not what I want them to do because I want expansion and a RSN spinoff.
Rodan75
Well-Known Member
I have to imagine at that point, the stock buyback program will restart. But either way, the impact on the share price in the example you lay out above should be significant. They should be trading back in the $120's easily by adding that much FCF with so little debt.
