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What If Disney’s Fox Deal Wasn’t So Terrible?

In the grand scheme, even with all the challenges Disney faces, the issue of what to do with the Fox assets is a good problem to have.
Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger. In the grand scheme, even with all the challenges Disney faces, the issue of what to do with the Fox assets is a good problem to have. Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Matthew Belloni
February 23, 2023

It’s funny how narratives develop in Hollywood. I was at a dinner this week with a few producers, when the topic turned to Disney, as it often does these days. One of them was quick to note, “The Fox deal—disaster, right?” At the table, it seemed obvious. Of course it was a disaster.

Was it, though? It’s true that Disney’s pricey acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox was premised on the 2017 streaming video landscape, where infinite content promised infinite growth. In March of 2019, when the deal finally closed, C.E.O. Bob Iger, then ramping up for the launch of Disney+, emailed employees that the Fox assets would help Disney “reach farther and aim higher—especially when it comes to building direct connections with consumers.” And it definitely did. Feel free to fight me on this, but I don’t think Disney+, a service that debuted with exactly one original show, would have notched 100 million subscribers in just 16 months without all that Fox content. By comparison, Netflix needed 10 years and more than $100 billion to cross 100 million subs.