Disney and Comcast both are seeking control of Sky Sports, which has rights to a majority of televised Premier League matches. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Comcast announced the end of its bid to acquire Fox’s film and television assets and will instead compete with Fox for a controlling stake in European broadcaster Sky.
A number of major media players with sports broadcast rights are playing a game of musical chairs with billions of dollars and pounds on the line. After a federal judge permitted AT&T to proceed with its takeover of Time Warner last month, Comcast had made a major offer to acquire the Fox properties—which include a number of regional sports networks—that Disney was on the verge of acquiring.
Disney received antitrust approval to complete the purchase of Fox for $70.4 billion, bolstering the content of its many ESPN family sports properties, including the new streaming service, ESPN+. Now that Comcast has dropped out of the running, that deal is likely to go through.
Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, will shift its attention to Sky, a U.K.-based pay broadcaster with affiliates in Germany, Austria, and Italy.
Sky’s primary sporting relevance lies in its control of English Premier League rights. Of the 200 matches to be broadcast on live TV, Sky Sports retains 128 of them. Sky also airs a number of other domestic soccer leagues, as well as cricket, rugby, tennis, golf, motorsports, and more.
Complicating matters, Fox currently owns 39 percent of Sky and is angling to acquire the rest before selling the entirety of its stake to Disney, while Comcast would prefer all 100 percent (and its per-share offer is contingent on receiving a majority stake). Comcast’s latest reported offer for Sky is £25.9 billion ($33.9 billion). Fox’s bid, meanwhile, gives Sky a valuation of £24.5 billion ($32.1 billion).
SportTechie Takeaway
This battle of broadcast giants focuses on international expansion and the ability to compete in a cord-cutting, direct-to-consumer landscape where Netflix and Amazon Prime are among the new players. Comcast and Disney are competitors, and often contentious ones, but could end up as joint owners of Sky. Comcast’s offer may well net 61 percent of the company, but Disney may retain the remaining 39 percent (via the Fox acquisition). That would make them partners in a second business. As the Financial Times noted, they already both own stakes in Hulu.
Sports is not the only factor in the reorganization of these sprawling media properties, but live sports broadcast rights are certainly a key consideration. How this tangled business unwinds will impact the distribution of several leagues across several countries.
