Sinclair will pay $10.6 billion to acquire Fox Regional Sports Networks from Disney. Sinclair Broadcast Group has agreed to pay $10.6 billion for 21 regional Fox Sports networks that Walt Disney agreed to sell in order to obtain regulatory permission for its $71.3 billion acquisition of substantial sections of 21st Century Fox. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2018.
Fox Sports is a division of 21st Century Fox. It covers sports news and stories for television, radio, online, and mobile devices. Its brands include NFL Football, MLB Baseball, NBA Basketball, NHL Hockey, UFC Fighting, and X Games.
In August 2016, Disney announced it would be acquiring most of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion, including the Fox Sports division. The deal was approved by the boards of both companies and was finalized on March 20, 2017.
Disney already owns ESPN, which produces many sports channels under its own name as well as through partners such as NBCUniversal (which operates Golf Channel). By combining these two networks, Disney can offer more comprehensive coverage than either company could alone. This should help attract more viewers, who might otherwise turn to other channels if they cannot watch their favorites play games or train for them.
The deal was criticized by some politicians and sports writers because it would give Sinclair too much power over content produced by those networks.
Fox, we'll miss you. The majority of regional sports networks began a new chapter Wednesday, switching from Fox Sports to Bally Sports. The rebranding of 19 regional networks took nearly two years after Sinclair Broadcast Group bought them from the Walt Disney Company for $10 billion in 2019.
Bally's is one of those companies that got lucky and was able to make money while most others weren't so fortunate. It started out as a bowling alley with 100 employees that got into broadcasting local sports events on television and radio. Over time, it acquired other companies that had similar formats and expanded into other sports. Today, Bally's owns 12 golf courses in eight states.
When it comes to baseball, the company mainly focuses on football and basketball but also has some minor league teams (Bally's Ballpark in Billy Penn).
Bally's got into trouble during the 2008 financial crisis when many other small businesses were failing due to reduced advertising revenue and lost subscribers. But thanks to its luck of being up and running when most others weren't, it was able to survive and even thrive during that time. In 2014, it became a public company by listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Since then, it has been expanding at a rapid pace by buying smaller companies and adding more sports channels such as Premier Boxing Champions and UFC Fight Pass.
After failing to reach an agreement on a new distribution arrangement, YouTube TV ceased airing Fox regional sports networks owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. on Thursday. The parties had been discussing a new arrangement for months but had failed to reach an agreement "despite a good faith attempt."
Sinclair owns or operates nearly 200 local television stations in 90 markets across the United States. The company also operates several large-scale broadcast networks that serve as both affiliates and surrogates for national advertising brands.
In August 2016, Google announced that it would be adding more than 100 live games from the 2017-18 season of the NBA's Golden State Warriors to its growing library of videos on YouTube. The deal was valued at $90 million over three years. Games will be available outside of the U.S. through Google Play Services.
The addition of these games marks the first time that a streaming service has distributed content from every team in an NBA franchise. Previously, only 30 teams' games were made available via streaming services or other digital outlets.
In October, Disney Television Studios merged with 20th Century Fox Television, a small-screen company that Disney acquired as part of the merger. Murdoch maintains ownership of the Fox broadcast network, Fox News, and a network of 28 local Fox television stations, among other media holdings.
Because Disney does not break out ESPN's financial results, deciphering the part requires some detective work. The company's media networks department is responsible for the company's multiple television channels. The media networks segment produced $24.8 billion in sales last year.
ESPN is a large expense for Disney. It accounted for 18% of the media networks division's revenue in 2014. Disney spends more on advertising than it earns in revenues from TV shows and sports events. This is typical for a media company. It is also true for ESPN. It is estimated that ESPN costs about $7 billion per year to operate. So Disney loses money on ESPN — but only because it has so much investment in the business.
The media networks division made $5.6 billion in profits in 2014. So ESPN was a loss-making operation. But it's important to remember that this includes all forms of entertainment including movies and music. Disney makes plenty of money from these activities which means they are able to cover their losses on ESPN.
This analysis shows that Disney doesn't feel the need to cut back on entertainment expenses to make up for losing money on ESPN. They can afford to keep spending on other projects because they have enough revenue coming in from other divisions of the company.
Acquisitions have been a primary source of expansion for Disney during the last three decades. In addition, the firm distributes programming via three key acquired brands—ABC, ESPN, and 21st Century Fox—as well as its own Disney Channel.
In 1994, Disney purchased Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., which at the time was owned by General Electric.
The deal created the world's largest entertainment company with assets worth $20 billion. It also marked the beginning of the end for GE's involvement in television. The previous year, it had sold its 33 percent stake in NBC to General Motors for $6 billion.
Capital Cities/ABC was one of the first major broadcast networks to be owned by a large media conglomerate. Its holdings included TV stations across the country, a cable network (ATV), and a major radio network. The company was founded in 1947 by seven former CBS executives who wanted to break away from their old network and start their own independent station group. After failing to receive approval from CBS to establish a separate network, they instead decided to buy one of its affiliates. ABC eventually became their flagship property and has remained so ever since.
Disney's acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC gave the company ownership of a number of popular franchises including Star Wars, Marvel Comics, Pixar, and Live Action Television.
2019 Sinclair Broadcasting paid $10 billion for all Fox Sports regional networks in 2019 and sold the name rights to Bally, the casino operator, for $88 million over ten years. The deal also included media assets including ESPN's former local television station group in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Orlando, and Seattle.
Sinclair owns or operates 173 local TV stations across the United States. It is best known for its conservative news programming that airs on many of its stations during daytime hours and uses content from the website Breitbart News.
In August 2015, the company reached a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission after it was discovered that some of its stations had aired misleading political advertising. Under the terms of the agreement, which was approved by an FCC administrative law judge during the summer of 2016, Sinclair will produce additional editorial oversight for ads it runs and will not run political advertisements on weekends or national holidays.
In October 2016, the company was ordered to submit a plan to the FCC to ensure that its stations do not air excessive amounts of false or misleading information during election seasons. The order followed a complaint filed by the advocacy group Free Press regarding five stations owned by Sinclair that ran nearly 1,000 instances of alleged misconduct from August 2015 to April 2016.
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