Disney

Disney CEO Bob Iger has shared additional details on the company's upcoming Disney+ streaming service, which will compete with Apple's forthcoming digital video platform. Speaking to shareholders on Thursday, Iger said the Disney service will offer subscribers "the entire Disney motion picture library," and will signal the end of the so-called "Disney Vault". The service, which I mentioned ...

Apple's upcoming video streaming service and its work on original TV content could spell trouble for Apple board member and Disney CEO Bob Iger, reports Bloomberg, citing the potential for competition between the two companies. Iger is potentially at risk of losing his seat on Apple's board as Apple prepares to launch its streaming TV service. Apple already has more than two dozen original TV...

Disney is in active discussions with AT&T in an effort to acquire the 10 percent ownership stake that WarnerMedia has in Hulu, according to a report by Variety. Disney already owns a 30 percent stake in Hulu, and is soon to gain Fox's 30 percent stake once regulatory approvals for the Disney/20th Century Fox acquisition go through. This means that if Disney does end up with both AT&T and...

Sphero, known for its popular BB-8, BB-9E, and R2-D2 iPhone-controlled droids, today confirmed that it is discontinuing all licensed products. In a statement provided to The Verge, Sphero CEO Paul Berberian confirmed that Sphero is cleaning out its remaining licensed inventory and has no plans to produce more. Sphero will no longer make BB-8, BB-9E, R2-D2, Lightning McQueen cars, or...

Disney today shared additional details on its planned streaming service, which will be called Disney+. Disney+, which will be home to Disney, Star Wars, and Marvel content, is set to launch in "late 2019," more than two years after it was first announced in August 2017. Along with the name for the service, Disney today also shared details on additional content that's coming to Disney+....

It's been nearly one year since Disney announced that it will pull all of its movies from Netflix and launch its own streaming service in late 2019, including both TV shows and movies from Marvel and Star Wars. This week, however, Bloomberg reports that the company is facing troubles with the TV rights to the Star Wars film franchise, dating back to a deal it made with Turner Broadcasting in...

One week after Comcast officially bowed out of the bidding war for 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets by ceding to Disney, shareholders of both Fox and Disney have today approved Disney's $71.3 billion acquisition offer for Fox (via The Wall Street Journal). At two separate gatherings this morning in Manhattan, both company's shareholders were said to have "voiced their support" for the...

After a summer of back-and-forth bids between Comcast and Disney for select entertainment assets owned by 21st Century Fox, Comcast today confirmed that it is bowing out of the bidding war for Fox. The company says the move is to instead focus on acquiring European satellite TV provider Sky, another much-sought-after entertainment company that is seeing interest from the likes of Comcast, Fox,...

After months of scrutiny in an ongoing antitrust case, the United States Department of Justice today granted The Walt Disney Company approval to acquire 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets for $71.3 billion, on one new condition: Disney must divest 22 regional sports networks owned by Fox to an "acceptable" buyer. Removing these networks from the acquisition "would resolve the competitive...

21st Century Fox and the Walt Disney Company today announced a new deal that increases the value of Disney's original December 2017 offer from $28 a share at $52.4 billion to $38 a share at $71.3 billion, with a new cash component. This agreement "is superior to the proposal" from Comcast made earlier this month, according to an unnamed representative speaking for Fox (via The Wall Street Journal)...

Just a day after a U.S. District Judge approved the upcoming merger between AT&T and Time Warner, Comcast has submitted a bid for 21st Century Fox's TV and film assets, reports CNBC. Comcast has presented Fox with an all-cash offer at $35 per share for a total of $65 billion, which beats out Disney's stock-based $52.4 billion deal. 21st Century Fox has already moved forward on a deal with...

Last December, The Walt Disney Company outlined plans to acquire 21st Century Fox and a collection of its subsidiaries for $52.4 billion in stock. Those plans have been under regulatory scrutiny for months and have yet to be finalized, and now Comcast has confirmed it is in "advanced stages" of sending Fox a "superior" all-cash offer in hopes of besting Disney's all-share offer (via Bloomberg). ...

ESPN today announced that it will launch its new streaming service, which it's calling "ESPN+", on Thursday, April 12. The service will be integrated into a "re-imagined" version of the ESPN app, and include thousands of live sporting events, original shows and films, exclusive studio programs, and a back catalog of on-demand content. ESPN+ will cost subscribers $4.99 per month ($49.99 per...

Last October, Disney announced that its "Disney Movies Anywhere" service would be expanding to become simply "Movies Anywhere," allowing customers to collect all of their digital films into one centralized location. Previously, the digital retailers supporting the service were iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, VUDU, and Google Play, but today the latest retailer has joined: FandangoNOW. FandangoNOW...

Google Maps' Street View technology has been updated today to include virtual tours of 11 Disney parks for parents and children to explore in advance of a coming trip, or to rekindle memories of previous visits. We're all about new fantastic points of view. Today Street View is going the distance, from California to Florida, to make Disney part of your world. Be our guest at 11 Disney Parks, ...

Following weeks of news coverage about the potential acquisition of certain Fox assets by The Walt Disney Company, today the confirmation of that acquisition has come from Disney with a press release detailing the specific parts of Fox that will now merge into Disney. Notably, Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox, including Twentieth Century Fox Film and Television Studios and Fox-related cable...

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has received a card on the iTunes Movies storefront that encourages users to watch the film in 4K HDR on the Apple TV 4K, suggesting that Disney's 4K video holdout on iTunes may end soon. The change comes after news in September that Disney would be the only major Hollywood studio not supporting 4K versions of its films on the iTunes Movies store, including Walt...

During Disney's latest quarterly earnings call, company chairman and CEO Bob Iger mentioned that its upcoming, exclusive streaming service will have a monthly subscription cost at an amount that's "substantially below" the price of rival Netflix (via Seeking Alpha). Disney has been dropping tidbits about its upcoming 2019 streaming service over the past few weeks, but had not yet hinted at how...

Disney's free Movies Anywhere service is expanding thanks to partnerships with Fox, Sony Pictures, Universal, and Warner Bros, allowing customers who purchase movies from services like iTunes and Amazon Video to watch all of their content in one place using the Movies Anywhere apps. Disney has been using Movies Anywhere for Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm titles since 2014, but now the...

Apple yesterday revealed the Apple TV 4K, a new set-top box that will bring all the features of the fourth-generation Apple TV, along with the ability to stream 4K HDR video content. This includes iTunes 4K movies, which the company confirmed will be sold for the same price as HD movies at $20 apiece. Users will even be able to gain access to 4K movies they've already purchased in HD at no extra...