Disney and Fox Television Merger Speculation

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Hello and welcome to Altered Geek, I'm your

host Stephen C. Phillips and in this episode

I'm joined with Mike Booth Ninja Powers Hello,

hello, and so continuing with our new endeavor

of the the podcast We're going to be talking

about the continued Conversation on the Fox Disney

deal. However, it won't be from the movie side

of things We'll be talking about it from the

the television and streaming side and in kind

of the possibilities that lie therein So we were

having this this interesting conversation about

it Pertaining to to the possibility of crossovers

which we could do first What would be some that

you would you would kind of like seeing just

from the basis of? I know, uh, my friends and

I were talking about it and I said that I would

like to see, uh, house show up on Grey's Anatomy.

Um, for everyone, I mean, I'm sure every, every,

most people probably know what house is, but

it's you, Lori, basically being Sherlock Holmes

at the medical, medical community. Um, like -

Super eccentric and kind of a dick. Yeah. Yeah.

So he'd fit right in on Grey's Anatomy. Um. I

think that would just be a fun little cameo or

a one -off thing to do. I haven't really put

too much thought into crossovers. I think it

could be kind of interesting because you could

start having... There's the possibility of...

You have the Orville, you have a variety of animated

series. Trying to think of some other You could

see the the possibility of this was a bad idea

knock this one out of the park Okay, so obviously

they have an extensive catalog And you guys can

try to play along at home in the comments and

stuff like so They have both Both. Geez, this

is really bad. Both entities had a lot of TV

properties that everyone was probably a fan of.

You know what's really funny, though, is now

I'm trying to think about it. When I think of

Disney TV, I think of ABC, right? Yep. Now I'm

trying to go, okay, what type of science fiction

shows does ABC have? Nothing. I can't think of

any. Yeah, because they don't have any. They

have Marvel's Agents of Shield. Right. And so

then I'm like, OK, so what could Marvel's Agents

of Shield go with? And then there's like, I mean,

the joke would be like Gotham, but that's a really

bad joke. Yeah, that's terrible. So it's just

our fans are probably a lot more familiar with

the content that they've got. So like, are there

characters or? TV shows that you would like to

see like and it could be really anything because

we live in the world of reboots and remakes and

What's it? What's the word for when they just

bring it back? revival revival the three R's

so like you know You know house on Grey's Anatomy

Or like a there's probably like a cop show you

could do Oh Fox has well Fox has Well, they they

have lethal weapon. Yep They have they've got

shows they got a lot of the singing type shows

which would kind of fit with a lot of ABCs kind

of stuff You get your Kind of glee and that kind

of stuff or whatever. Please show me here. I

don't know Don't think it is. I don't think it

is half the shows Half the shows that Fox and

ABC have I don't care for so it just makes it

that much more difficult Because Fox has more

of the the kind of hardcore kind of Actiony stuff

or like goofy comedies and in animated stuff.

Whereas like ABC has more of the soap opera vibe

and the dramas the dramas and Yeah, it's more

of like a it's like a Burger King doing McDonald's.

Yeah, and and I'm not sure which is which but

Yeah, I mean it works either way, right? Yeah,

I guess it would depend on you know, the analogy

goes Okay, so do you like ABC? Do you like McDonald's?

Does that make ABC McDonald's like that? I mean

that that's how that analogy works, but Man,

I'm just trying to I can't really because honestly,

I don't like anything that's on ABC Which I know

is kind of I don't know like most of the stuff

they like or that I liked that was on ABC got

canceled a long time ago right and Therefore

like everything that's on it now like I think

the only show I watched it's on ABC is Shark

Tank at this point and whereas like Fox I watch

Prison Break Lethal Weapon Gotham And I think

that's about my my I feel like like well, I mean

Man, there's a cop show on ABC But it probably

isn't even on anymore Why can't I think of it

I Mean you get I don't know are you talking about

how to get away with murder show? No, I think

well there was that but that's Shonda Ryan's

Yeah, well that could have fit with half the

comp procedurals that are on Fox Yeah I mean

I guess I get actually what's really interesting

about this is like you sit back and you think

about You can't really there aren't very many

things that are too similar, right? Like it's

it's almost entirely different content which

kind of makes it nice for when they get to the

streaming service It makes it nice when they

get to the streaming service Because then Disney

basically would own the monopoly of choose your

content Yeah, I'm wondering how this stuff worked

like I'm wondering how a lot of this stuff really

works because they've got like You know So Fox

airs Gotham, but it's made by Warner Brothers

like I'm more interested to see how like the

TV side of things like shakes out like the movie

the movie side seems to be pretty cut and dry.

Yeah, where is the TV? There's a lot of gray

area of where things are, you know, what studios

putting on what station. And in Fox, it was kind

of that mutual ground that pretty much anybody

could use because they didn't really have a lot

of something going for them. right because it

was supposed to be like that some kind of a marvel

mutant show going on on Fox and then you had

Gotham and then you have like lethal weapon and

stuff like that so it'll be interesting to see

how that plays out but then you've also got the

the aspect of Disney owning part of Hulu through

yes they have a they now have a majority share

in the Hulu streaming platform. So that has interesting

implications given what Dizzy's ambitions are

for starting their own streaming service. Now

it kind of makes me wonder too on the other side

of things with them owning the majority of share

of Hulu if this is kind of part of their... Was

part of their plan all along knowing that like

there there must have been some kind of a background

talk that they were gonna buy Fox and thus Hulu

by association and and Possibly using this as

their streaming service and kind of rebranding

it and kind of buying everybody else out. I Mean

obviously that can happen. You can't really you

can't really rule anything out at this point

I mean it is Disney they do eventually buy everything

so I still hold out that Apple will buy Disney.

Which would be a hilarious twist of events, but

I sincerely doubt it. I think Apple will buy

like AT &T or something, which will therefore

buy like Warner Brothers. I mean, so it's it's

it's just the landscape of of entertainment is

very. Murky right now, because I like I'm I'm

the one thing because is it going to be one plot

like they haven't really. said what their plans

are for their streaming service. There's like

one plan, like is it gonna be one, like a one

-shot kill for like Star Wars, Marvel, and the

rest of the Disney stuff, or is it gonna be like

pay us $10 for Marvel content, pay us 10 more

dollars for Star Wars content? Yeah, I kind of

wondered about that as well because that, and

that was something I was discussing with my coworkers

actually. the implications of Disney pulling

their content from Netflix and creating their

own streaming service because they've kind of

had this premium price you've had to pay for

DVDs and home video for the past, I don't know,

20, 30 years. Yeah, ever. So, you know, you're

paying basically the price it was when it came

out even if it's been sitting on the shelf for

20 years. Like, it's not... It doesn't depreciate.

There's a reason a few of the Pixar movies they

don't own are Finding Nemo because I just don't

feel like spending 30 bucks on a Blu -ray copy

of Finding Nemo. I can definitely see Disney

either charging upwards of $20 a month for their

content library or more. You don't think they'll

nickel and dime you for packages? Oh, I think

that they may be part of it. I think that they

may give you like the entire like run of everything

from like maybe 50 bucks a month. Because considering

their massive library from way back when and

also getting Fox's content, because I mean, you

have Fox, you have Lucasfilm, you have Marvel,

you have, you know, the Muppets, you have like

various studios that Disney's owned over the

years. And then you have Disney itself and so

in Pixar and and and so you get all these different

Platforms under this umbrella on Disney. I mean

essentially they're out their own cable service

Okay. All right. Hold up. So $50 a month is is

Steep for an on -demand service. However, I don't

care. I would never pay it But I'm just saying

like I don't care how deep your catalog is like

Unless all of that stuff is available all the

time And even then I don't even know like $50

a month for a an on -demand library of all that

content That's steep. Like the only way I feel

like it works is if they actually have Like a

live like a skinny package of TV like live TV

Like if you were to integrate like like right

now, there's like there's Hulu live TV, right?

You can pay what 40 bucks? To for live live.

Yeah something like that so like like if I could

pay $50 and get the live TV of like Fox and ABC

and various yeah, and I get all the live live

TV and Their entire catalog like that is enticing

to me, but 50 bucks just for an on -demand library

Like I don't I don't know and even if they're

gonna do that. I really hope that they That point

I hope that they allow you to go. Okay. It's

you know $15 for The animation platform or something

yeah, or maybe maybe they go like it's uh, I'm

trying to make it I'm trying to wait this just

to make this math work in my head is like a Figure

but like maybe maybe they pay like maybe they

go. Okay a bundle Everything all together is

$45 and you get you get you get live TV You get

access to Disney, Disney animation. Okay. Or

Disney films. We'll say Disney films. You get

access to Marvel and Star Wars content. Okay.

So you get four things. But if you want to buy

everything individually, it's $15 like a tier.

Like, and that way it's like, you feel like you're

saving money by paying the 40 bucks, you know?

Like, yeah. But you don't ever, you don't ever

access all that content. And even then, like,

Don't like I like there's a you know, what's

gonna make me sign up for it is this Star Wars

TV series that they're working on And I think

that's what they're what they're gearing for

is that they're gonna have all these exclusive

new original shows that are gonna be only on

their service Yeah, kind of like Netflix and

I think that's gonna be their enticement program

because I mean looking it's like kind of some

of the stuff that's on like HBO go or looking

at CBS All Access, who's trying to garner attention

to it from the Star Trek Discovery series, which

don't waste your money on that. And I'm saying

the app. Is there stuff available? Do they do

what Hulu does on there, where it's like they

only have the last three or four episodes on

there? Or is all the content on there all the

time? They're supposed to have the back catalogue

of everything. Because I could see their service

is so glitchy on CBS's thing that I just I couldn't

fathom it plus I didn't want to pay them on the

amount of money for one show when half of CBS's

content is also available on Netflix and Hulu

Well, like I could I I could see maybe paying

like waiting until discovery was over paying

six bucks and blitzing it and We're doing a free

trial for for the 14 days and yeah and then canceling

your service. Like, I can see doing that, like

to watch that. And my wife and I have had conversations

about that. It's like, you know, we signed up

for HBO back over the summer to watch Game of

Thrones. And then we started watching Westworld

and then we started watching Vice Principals.

And then we went back and finished Game of Thrones.

But now we still hold on to HBO because sometimes

they put movies on there we want to watch or

we try to find something else, but we'll probably

end up cancelling it here because the shows that

we do, we've binged all the shows that are available

right now for us to watch. So we could cancel

that right now and save that money until next

season. Something new comes along. Yeah, and

that's the nice thing about the streaming services.

I feel like you have control. Over those things,

but obviously, you know, Disney doesn't want

you doing that. They want your money all the

time Yes, I have a feeling that they'll they'll

do the Netflix thing and kind of roll out different

things of their their packages at different times

To kind of keep it fresh, but it's their own

library. So it won't really matter See, but I

don't think you should pay like it but I also

see them having a lot more original series that

are exclusive to the service just like you were

stating the Star Wars show so But I think if

you if you go north If you go north of HBO's

pricing and you don't have live TV, I wouldn't

pay for it. Like that doesn't mean other people

wouldn't like Disney like you can't really say

like no one's gonna pay that Somebody will pay

for that a lot of people will pay for that For

their kids to be able to watch it without having

to be able to see commercials Yeah, and and that's

and that's kind of why everything's as much as

it is because somebody does pay for it, so So

I'm wondering like Like I canceled Netflix. I

had nothing. I really cared to watch on there

anymore. And so I canceled it two months ago

and saving the money on it. So we keep Netflix.

My parents like share my Netflix account with

me. Plus, it's one of the ways that I get 4K

content for my TV because all of their original

stuff is in 4K. So I have to I could cancel it,

but I don't want to because it like we don't

have. TV in this house. Yeah, we don't either.

Yeah, it's it's it's YouTube. It's it's Hulu

We sign up for Hulu because they had a special

promotion like six dollars a month for 12 months

So we sign up for Hulu. We've got HBO. We've

got Netflix and we use The CW app to watch the

CW shows that's free. Yep But anyways the the

Fox Disney Fox Disney deal like It's still way

too early to see how it's really going to impact

it I think the thing that people are most excited

about is the movies and I think that's where

it's gonna have like a much bigger impact But

I also think that That Fox's apps and their their

online presence for their streaming content Even

on their website is much better than anything

Disney ABC has at this point See, I haven't used

the Fox app on my on my on my tv or my apple

tv yet i just i find the abc uh structure to

be irritating whereas boxes i find to be um aesthetically

pleasing for when i'm trying to watch content

and it doesn't frustrate me to the point i want

to go out and find another source to watch the

material well also uh i mean hulu isn't that

great either so you know disney just bought like

a service that does not have the greatest user

interface on the planet. No, but it's still better

than some others that I've tried. It's better.

But it's not good. Netflix still holds that close

to heart and that's saying something. But I do

think that Fox's individual owned stuff is better

than a lot of the other ones. I haven't been

able to use any of that stuff yet because I don't

have... I would imagine that I might imagine

you're talking about viewing it from your computer.

Yes But I don't I I have a hard time watching

anything on my computer I meant my big computer

the one that's plugged into my my TV Well, I

mean even then like we like I mean we have Apple

TVs. So we use whatever's on there. It's basically

the same thing. It's it's my my pocket -sized

PC that Now, do they have to... Now, does the...

See, I have an app. Like, I can install, like,

the Fox app. Well, I can do that too, but...

You have to log in with your cable subscription.

Yeah, I have this computer I bought that's a

Windows 10 machine that's the size of my phone

that I can get on the web and go right to the

website and I have a Bluetooth remote for the

mouse. Okay. And a Bluetooth keyboard, so...

I like the whole login with your cable stuff

and watch these channels, but I don't like that

you actually have to have a cable subscription

to do it. Yeah, I don't like that either. But

I do wish, and I feel like my provider would

be the one to do this, I wish that they would

allow you to charge me $10 more to be able to

use these apps. Let my cable login unlock these.

the Fox app or the ABC app and let me watch these

things like I don't have one of your set top

boxes I'm not using your your whatever you want

to charge me you know 50 bucks for but I'm paying

you $75 for internet I'll pay you 85 if you give

me the ability to you know watch ABC using the

ABC app and not have to actually pay you know

$25 to use services I'm never going to use yeah

but That's a discussion for a different time.

Yeah, so what did you guys think about this?

Which what are your thoughts on the Disney? possibility

of a Disney streaming service like the cost the

the inclusions what you would be willing to handle

or pay for and The ramifications of Disney and

Fox's merger with television itself. Yeah, let

us know what crossovers you come up with Yeah,

cuz we clearly don't have any idea So, you can

comment on the website, you can comment on Facebook,

Twitter. You can also use the hashtag DisneyFoxStream.

Yes, DisneyFoxStream on Twitter. You can get

ahold of me on there, at scp21 and yourself,

sir. I am at Boothinja81. So, until next time,

get altered, get geeky with the Altered Geeks.