Nov 16, 2017

Comcast also wants to buy 21st Century Fox

Reports emerged this afternoon that Comcast has approached 21st Century Fox with interest in acquiring the company's entertainment and international broadcasting assets.

Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, appears to be interested in a similar set of assets which Disney wanted to buy from Fox earlier. If Comcast were to buy Fox, they would acquire Blue Sky Studios, in addition to already owning Illumination Entertainment and Dreamworks Animation.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal identified Verizon as another company possibly interested in buying parts of Fox, a clear signal that Murdoch is getting ready to restructure his company, and separate 21st Century Fox's entertainment side from the news and sports side. (Murdoch separately runs another company, News Corp, which is a major publisher of newspapers, books, and magazines.)

Around ninety percent of mainstream entertainment production in the United States is controlled by just five companies. Should either Comcast or Disney purchase 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets, that number would shrink to four.