Mergers and acqusitions

By now you've probably heard about the sale of a lot of Fox assets to Disney. If you haven't heard about it, USA Today offers an okay summary. The only immediate impact on our little genre concerns oldies diginet Buzzr. It's carried on the subchannels of many Fox owned-and-operated TV stations.

But here's the thing. The Fox O&O's aren't going anywhere, because they're not part of the deal. (Sooner or later Fox will spin them off along with other assets into an independent company.) A commenter made a suggestion on this blog a while ago that the (then rumored) Disney-Fox deal might somehow jeopardize Buzzr. Not to worry, oldies fans.

I didn't think the sale would even happen at all, which shows what I know. But the broadcast assets were never going to be in the deal, because Disney already owns ABC. And there are all sorts of arcane regulations stopping a company from owning two or more broadcast nets. These rules and regs date from the Jurassic period, when broadcasters ruled like dinosaurs.

Now those networks really are like dinosaurs, and they're getting long in the tooth. Meanwhile, Buzzr will still find a niche on digital subchannels and cable/satellite services.

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