Does disney care about this news?

[llrain]

Could this mean bigger and better expansions for Universal? Or just a name change and the status quo stays?

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/universal-orlando-sold-to-comcast-20110606,0,4638257.story


By Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel

6:59 p.m. EDT, June 6, 2011
Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal will buy the Blackstone Group's half of Universal Orlando for just more than $1 billion, the companies announced Monday, in a deal that adds to Comcast's growing media-and-entertainment holdings and ensures the resort won't be put on the auction block.

The deal was struck just five months after Philadelphia-based Comcast closed on its $13 billion deal to acquire a majority stake in NBCUniversal from General Electric Co.

It comes with Universal Orlando in the midst of the strongest performance in its history, propelled by the wildly popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which opened in June 2010. Attendance at the two-park resort soared 68 percent during the first quarter of this year.

"The acquisition consolidates our ownership and confirms our long-term commitment to Universal Orlando and the theme-park business," Steve Burke, the former Comcast chief operating officer who is now chief executive officer of NBCUniversal, said in a prepared statement. "Universal Orlando is a consistent and significant driver of operating and free cash flow and is performing extremely well. It has a superb management team and exciting growth opportunities. This purchase of the Blackstone interest is attractively valued and represents strong financial returns for NBCUniversal."

 

[Kamikaze]

The owners of the parks up the street make little difference to Disney.

However, this could possibly give Disney a way to get the Marvel licenses back. Kind of the way they got Oswald back ...

Sure Comcast, you don't want us to raise our station rates for your cable service? Well, there are these superheroes .... and then set an actual expiration date to the contract to 5-10 years in the future to give time to Comcast to re-theme the attractions.

Hey, if money gets spent up the road it only can make Disney spend more money on new things. They won't go the opposite way and spend less, they are too smart for that - yes, even TDO is too smart for that. Potterland is one thing, but if Comcast is going to sink serious money into upkeep, upgrades, and new attractions at both parks, Disney will have no choice but to respond.

Disney still has that one ace in the hole to call on if it really needs the help with building the next technologically impressive attraction. Sure, the building will have a giant fruit on the front, but it will happen one day.

 

[Merlin0402]

Disney still has that one ace in the hole to call on if it really needs the help with building the next technologically impressive attraction. Sure, the building will have a giant fruit on the front, but it will happen one day.

I'm having a brain fart moment, what exactly are you referring to?

 

[prberk]

No surprised to see Steve Burke front and center on this: He was the one that Comcast had appointed to run Disney when they were trying to acquire it some years ago. He had come from Disney, and while at Comcast seemed salivating to get back into that business....

 

[MichWolv]

However, this could possibly give Disney a way to get the Marvel licenses back. Kind of the way they got Oswald back ...

Plus, NBCUniversal wanted Al Micheals to host Sunday Night Football and needed Disney to let him out of his contract with ABC/ESPN. He said that being traded for a cartoon rabbit was one of the high points of his career. :lol:

 

[MaryJaneP]

I'm having a brain fart moment, what exactly are you referring to?

Not sure, but maybe an apple.

 

[Lee]

No Disney doesn't care. This has no effect on the Disney-Uni relationship at all.

 

[Mouse Detective]

However, this could possibly give Disney a way to get the Marvel licenses back. Kind of the way they got Oswald back ...
Sure Comcast, you don't want us to raise our station rates for your cable service? Well, there are these superheroes .... and then set an actual expiration date to the contract to 5-10 years in the future to give time to Comcast to re-theme the attractions.

Dream on Kamikaze, Disney ain't getting the Marvel licenses back. Their value skyrocketed when Disney bought Marvel and Disney can't afford them. Comcast buying out the other half of Universal from Blackstone means Comcast is serious about playing hard ball. They're sure not going to let the value of what they just spent slip. This means maximize the Marvel franchise and maximize the Harry Potter franchise. Charging Comcast more to carry the Disney Channel isn't going to mean squat to Comcast.

 

[PirateFrank]

I'm still entirely convinced that Disney bought marvel for film/tv content rights only....it's an income stream to them, nothing else....

Having said that, with potter facing possible expansion at iOA and as uni moves forward with other assets, there might very well be a time when uni doesn't need nor want current marvel characters in uni Orlando....however, at that point said assets won't be worthwhile for Disney to use anyway.....

So I'm thinking Disney needs to concentrate on things other than marvel.... If they wanted to spend a boatload of cash for the parks, they'd have a far greater roi if they contacted Egroeg Sacul about his very under utilized characters.....

 

[Kamikaze]

Dream on Kamikaze, Disney ain't getting the Marvel licenses back. Their value skyrocketed when Disney bought Marvel and Disney can't afford them. Comcast buying out the other half of Universal from Blackstone means Comcast is serious about playing hard ball. They're sure not going to let the value of what they just spent slip. This means maximize the Marvel franchise and maximize the Harry Potter franchise. Charging Comcast more to carry the Disney Channel isn't going to mean squat to Comcast.

Comcast buying Blackstones half of USF probably had very little to do with Marvel. They wanted to own the rest of the property so they didn't have to split profits. And its not Disney Channel that would make Comcast balk. Its the local affiliates - and more importantly, ESPN. Disney has never played the card, but they could get cable/sat providers to bend over backwards if they really wanted to over ESPN. Can you imagine how many subscribers Comcast would lose if they could no longer offer ESPN?

I'm having a brain fart moment, what exactly are you referring to?

Disney's largest individual shareholder is also the co-founder of a certain fruit company.

Plus, NBCUniversal wanted Al Micheals to host Sunday Night Football and needed Disney to let him out of his contract with ABC/ESPN. He said that being traded for a cartoon rabbit was one of the high points of his career. :lol:

I'm well aware. Thats what I was referring to.

I'm still entirely convinced that Disney bought marvel for film/tv content rights only....it's an income stream to them, nothing else....

Having said that, with potter facing possible expansion at iOA and as uni moves forward with other assets, there might very well be a time when uni doesn't need nor want current marvel characters in uni Orlando....however, at that point said assets won't be worthwhile for Disney to use anyway.....

So I'm thinking Disney needs to concentrate on things other than marvel.... If they wanted to spend a boatload of cash for the parks, they'd have a far greater roi if they contacted Egroeg Sacul about his very under utilized characters.....

Disney bought Marvel to diversify their offerings more. I doubt they even worried about the attractions at USF, or else they would have worked out a deal at some point.

Disney will eventually start branding these characters. Same as you have 'Disney-Pixar' you'll have 'Disney-Marvel'. So when the 'Disney-Marvel's Spiderman' movies start coming out, that puts the attractions in a very strange situation.

There will be Marvel attractions at WDW. Its just a question of how soon - and which characters.

 

[Mr Bill]

Branding a Spiderman movie as Disney-Marvel makes little more sense to me than branding Kill Bill as a Disney-Miramax film

 

[Disneyfanman]

Looking at this news through a broader lense, this is really good news for Universal Parks, and for the competition between the resorts that has encouraged some recent development in Orlando. Universal has sort of been caught up in a tug of war between the companies with interests in various components. At one point I thought that the parks would be spun off entirely. Stability is good, competition is better, and more visitors is a welcome outcome. TDO is more creative when somebody is yapping at their heels.

 

[Ignohippo]

Comcast really didn't have a choice. If they didn't buy Blackstone's half, the rights to the Potter and Marvel attractions would've been lost, leaving them with a pretty worthless property.

Given the spot Blackstone put them in, I wouldn't be surprised to see them re-negotiating the rights to Potter so they could eventually sell the park and have Potter remain. We'll probably see a gradual phase out of the Marvel characters for things like the Transformers.

They're doing gangbuster business, but the Potter train will only last so long and franchises like that don't come along very often. As a business, it would make sense formthem to sell within the next 10 years.

 

[El Grupo]

Comcast's primary business has been and continues to be providing cable/HSI/telephone service to the home. Their acquisitions have been mainly made over the years to drive this business. They seem to operate under a business model similar to the old TCI: control the line to the home and much of the content distributed via those lines.

The investment in NBC/Universal increases Comcast's content portfolio by adding interest in USA, Weather Channel, Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, A&E, SyFy along with NBC and Universal Studios production. Now they will control local and national ad sales, as well as license fees, for these additional networks/content providers.

The indication from many in the industry was that the hostile takeover bid for Disney was made to gain access to ESPN, a crown jewel in the programming/ad sales world, followed by Disney Channel and their coveted audience. Sounds like the theme parks were not a priority. Some speculation was that Comcast would have been looking for a buyer for the parks. So, it will be interesting to see what they do with USF.

On a related note, if Comcast gets aggressive with the park, I will be curious to see how Disney responds. It was not that long ago that Disney was rumored to be a potential buyer for DirecTV. Such a move would place Disney in direct competition on a grander scale with Comcast's core business. The resulting skirmish could be better than any E-ticket ride imagined.

 

[MrMorrowTom]

Oh man if Disney did another trade,

How about Chris Berman for the theme park right of Marvel`:ROFLOL:

 

[Clever Name]

Comcast's primary business has been and continues to be providing cable/HSI/telephone service to the home. Their acquisitions have been mainly made over the years to drive this business. They seem to operate under a business model similar to the old TCI: control the line to the home and much of the content distributed via those lines.

The investment in NBC/Universal increases Comcast's content portfolio by adding interest in USA, Weather Channel, Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, A&E, SyFy along with NBC and Universal Studios production. Now they will control local and national ad sales, as well as license fees, for these additional networks/content providers.

The indication from many in the industry was that the hostile takeover bid for Disney was made to gain access to ESPN, a crown jewel in the programming/ad sales world, followed by Disney Channel and their coveted audience. Sounds like the theme parks were not a priority. Some speculation was that Comcast would have been looking for a buyer for the parks. So, it will be interesting to see what they do with USF.

On a related note, if Comcast gets aggressive with the park, I will be curious to see how Disney responds. It was not that long ago that Disney was rumored to be a potential buyer for DirecTV. Such a move would place Disney in direct competition on a grander scale with Comcast's core business. The resulting skirmish could be better than any E-ticket ride imagined.

You hit the nail on the head! Let me add that it will not be too long before Comcast gets Disney too. As you mentioned, ESPN is the main target but the other content owned by Disney is important as well. Once Comcast has acquired Disney, they will spin off all the parks, cruise ships and the other junk but keep the media related operations. That's where the money is and Comcast can buy Disney now if they so desire. :wave:

 

[El Grupo]

You hit the nail on the head! Let me add that it will not be too long before Comcast gets Disney too. As you mentioned, ESPN is the main target but the other content owned by Disney is important as well. Once Comcast has acquired Disney, they will spin off all the parks, cruise ships and the other junk but keep the media related operations. That's where the money is and Comcast can buy Disney now if they so desire. :wave:

Could be wrong, but I don't believe Comcast is in much of position for such a massive purchase after the NBC/Universal acquisition. Their bid for Disney in 2004 was $66 billion. That's more than double what they paid for the a majority stake in NBC, and I'm sure Disney's value has gone up considerably since then.

Comcast will need to be careful to avoid the same pitfall that caused AOL/Time Warner, to stumble after their merger. Keep in mind that Comcast was able to accomplish much of their growth from acquiring the troubled assets of other companies that had over-extended (e.g., AT&T cable division). I suspect there are a few media conglomerates waiting to pick off pieces of Comcast if should happen down the AOL/TW path.

As far as selling parks is concerned, who knows, Comcast may end up selling Universal to Disney.

 

[gamblepsu]

Interesting, this came out the same day it was announced that Comcast was looking at selling their majority stake in the Philadelphia 76ers.

 

[bhg469]

Not sure, but maybe an apple.

I sure hope not.

 

[kapeman]

I'm still entirely convinced that Disney bought marvel for film/tv content rights only....it's an income stream to them, nothing else....

That was my take as well.

Even if the decision to add the Marvel characters to the parks were made, there would be a long wait until anything more than a M&G appeared.

Disney will eventually start branding these characters. Same as you have 'Disney-Pixar' you'll have 'Disney-Marvel'. So when the 'Disney-Marvel's Spiderman' movies start coming out, that puts the attractions in a very strange situation.

There will be Marvel attractions at WDW. Its just a question of how soon - and which characters.

I just had a thought.

Wouldn't it be amazing if the Marvel IP was utilized by Pixar?

I would be in line the day that movie was announced!