Comcast wants to buy Disney for $66 billion

The Roberts in acquiring the businesses they have over the last 3 years have tend to bring in top people in the field. That is something I think Disney could benefit from.

What everyone is forgetting it's Disney and the other content providers that set how much they charge for the pleasure of Comcast to carry said service. In fact they barely increased the cost of basic cable. It's all the pay channels jacking up their prices to carry their content. Also everyone wants service as soon as they call well then we have to hire people to do that. Then there are all the back end people that support them. Which if the source and carrier were one allot of the cost overhead and redundancy would be gone.

Also when stringing up all the cable Comcast pays rent on the poles and under ground conduits they don't own.

Yes I work for them and no I wouldn't have all the channels I have if I had to pay. I would have the broadband Internet. But being on the inside I see a little more than most. Do things go as planned, no.

Comcast also owns some content providers. Comcast Sportsnet,CN8, Style ,E!, and used to own part of QVC. They run them as separate businesses as well as the cable group is divided locally.

Also the local governments have they're hands out too that would be the franchising fee and then the taxes.

Yup....then again, if he stands up to them, and the buyout goes through, bye bye Mike.

This is a terrible idea and not because I give a crap what happens to Disney or Comcast but because of the resulting enormous media conglomerate. The two entities by themselves are already too big for comfort.

Let me be the odd man out (as usual) - I really like Comcast as far as cable companies go. The least of all the evils sort of thing.

I've dealt with 4 different companies over the past 6 years and Comcast is far and away the best. I used to be a huge fan, proponent and supporter of DirecTv, but to be quite honest, the cable companies technology has caught up.

1998 - Armstrong Cable in Western PA. Just starting to upgrade lines for the move to better service. No high speed internet available and their line up is around 60 channels. At this time I'd have grabbed a DirecTv system in a moment, but lived in an apartment and never could. I did talk my mother into it though and she still loves it to this day.

1999 to 2001 - AT&T in Jacksonville, FL. The single worst cable company ever. Non-existant customer service. Skyrocketed rates. 54 channel line-up with promises of upgraded service any day now (for two straight years). They offered high speed, but it was a one-way line which meant uploading at dial up speed and downloads of 1.5mbps. It got so back that by summer of 2001 the city of Jacksonville was threatening to pull their contract, AT&T had to tuen in monthly reports to the city. We left in late 2001 and I'm not sure if the ever did kick AT&T out of town.

2001 to 2003 - Service Electric in Allentown, PA. The best of the bunch so far. We got a much bigger channel line-up than in the past but still not a full digital line-up. Staples like Tech TV were still not available to us. High Speed service was one way again with dial-up speed uploads and only 500kbps downloads. The prices were in line with the others but the selection was much greater. At this point DirecTv still seemed a better option.

Present - Comcast in Pittsburgh. By far the best cable company I've ever used. Full digital line-up. Excellent high speed with 3mbps downloads and 256kbps uploads. Our channel selection is actually greater than what DirecTv offers. About a dozen HD channels. And the single feature I use more than any - On Demand. DVR cable boxes are promised for this year. I pay a little more than I would for similar service on DirecTv but also getting more for that money.

Cable companies all suck in general, but Comcast has been far and away the best I've dealt with in the past 6 or 8 years and I honestly feel DirecTv (Something I've talked people into buying in the past) is now slightly behind what the biggest and best cable companies have to offer.

And, ummmm, to be more on topic, did Comcast really think they could buy Disney? That just doesn't even sound right.

Anyone notice the price dropped to $54 billion on CNN.com since 10:00am?

The departments I worked in for municipalities as I mentioned in another news item was the cable TV department. In addition to administering local access we also monitored franchise compliance, so I know all about cable companies.

The notion that cable companies have a lot of expenses and that hurts their margin, as "cryingbaby" suggests, is total nonsense. Franchise fees are passed right on to the consumer and it's listed on your bill. They have zero effect on the company bottom line. In some municipalities that also pays for the right of way on the poles, so that's further nonsense.

Cable companies charge as much as they can within the guidelines set forth by the FCC. They're huge cash cows and natural monopolies, which is why they can afford to suck so much. For the time being, you need to be a real idiot to tank a cable company.

But mark my words... wireless and phone companies will slowly erode cable. It's already happening.

Rob Ascough said:

It seems like NBC is grooming Scrubs to be their new flagship sitcom.

Nah, I think will and Grace has that pegged...and rightfully so..... :) Me love Karen long time

1) They had just said on CNN the price was $66 Billion, and many felt that was too low.

2) After Eisner blew off the idea in private, it seems as if Comcast is now going directly to the board.

-Michael

I find it odd when I'm flipping through the channels. ABC was showing The Mummy Returns, and in between it on commercials they were advertising Universal theme parks and advertising showing Jurassic Park 3 later this week. Just seemed odd that the "flagship" Disney station would start showing Universal items...

Yeah, but Will and Grace has been around, what, like 5 years now? If it follows in the steps of most other sitcoms, it only has a few years left. Scrubs is still rather young. That said, they are both excellent shows.

I still miss Must See TV Thursdays with Friends and Seinfeld!

I mentioned the franchise fee to show that the total cost at the end of the bill isn't just thrown into the profit pool as mot people think when they mention there cable bill they state the total bill not the befor tax, not with out franchise fee.

I would check you information on the poles because I can asure you we pay a rental fee to be on the poles we don't own and it's not cheep.

The franchise fee goes right to the local government. Also comcast provides cable to the county buildings and schools for free.

Impulsive,

The $54 billion is stock...the other 12 billion is debt that Disney is carrying that Comcast will take. $54+$12 = $66...

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Which FCC actions are those?

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My snide answer is "precisely." There have been no "actions".

My real answer is the recent decision to relax restrictions on multi-outlet ownership within markets. The FCC has essentially abdicated its role of protecting the public interest in bandwidth allocation decisions.

*** This post was edited by Brian Noble 2/11/2004 2:14:59 PM ***

All I know is Comcast out here in DC/Maryland sucks donkey nads (a technical term). For the sake of all that is good and holy, dont let them get their hands on Disney! Actually, it would be *extremely* unfair for Comcast to own Disney. Right now, Cox Communications is *already* in a big fight with Disney over the fees it charges to carry the ESPN networks. If Comcast were able to "lord over" Cox by pricing ESPN so high it would destroy Cox (and competition). Unlike Comcast SportsNet, QVC and the other channels named above, ESPN tends to be a MAJOR factor in decision for a household to have cable. Pretty much any cable provider that does not offer ESPN will see their clientle depart, either to other cable operators or satellite. That's why Disney gets away with charing so much for ESPN in the first place, they know it is in demand. Giving Comcast, in essence, veto power over ESPN would absolutely ruin competition.

As to Disney's programming, there are actually *some* good shows on ABC, mostly the Disney cartoons like Filmore, The Proud Family, and Recess and they even have "decent" live action shows like My Wife and Kids and 8 Simple Rules. The problem is, too many of their so-called "reality" shows (The Mole, I'm a Celebrity...) are a day late and a dollar short. And they are getting little to no benefit from their relationship with the NBA. None of their shows are "catchy" enough to generate that 'water cooler' talk. When they try to be 'edgy', it just ends up lame.

But what do I know, I dont work in television...just watch it.

lata, jeremy

Am I the only one that watches Alias?

crying: You're missing the point... there are many cities where the city owns the poles and they nearly always own the right of way (treelawns, where the stuff is buried), and that is paid via franchise fees. Trust me, I know more about this than you. Of course every company gives schools and government buildings access, it's written in nearly every franchise agreement in the country! It sure as hell isn't an expense, even if they write it off as such.

And the point still stands that it's a cash cow. Rate regulation is too lax.

This is my theory. If this merger did happen when I would go to disney for my graduation everything would say Magic Kingdom brought to you by comcast. Destroying the Disney name since 2004. This is bad for Disney, comcast has no clue on how to run a major entertainment company like Disney. The company is going down hard. I will always remember my first visit to Disney in 1997 the park was clean and the staff was very friendly. But that has changed now a 20oz pop cost $3.50.

If you go to this site, you can see the details of the merger proposal. If you download the .pdf file, you'll see that Comcast proposes changes in the animation and theme park divisions to restore them to their former glory. I'm not sure how much of that is just corporate b.s., but it seems as though Comcast has a good track record when it comes to following through with mergers. More news like this, and I may have to switch sides and be all for this!

Rick I think the Roberts would bring in people who have experience in running parks. It's not like the changed anything in the sports teams they bought here in Philly.... although they should. Basically If the Disney parks are declining in quality then why not make a change. Wouldn’t the so-called experts in there now be able to improve the situation or even not let it get bad in the first place? Like I said Comcast is run like lots of little businesses under one Company banner.

I don't know the specifics of comcast, but they remind me a lot of WorldCom. I just worry that they have profits because they are always making large purchases that cover up the real financial situation. I am worried that Disney will be to Comcast as MCI was to WorldCom.

jeremy, that's an interesting point about ESPN.

Did you know that when the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network went on the air, they paid cable companies for carriage on a per-subscriber basis?

Oh, how far we've come...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Whose household had Telecinema when we lived in Coaxial territory, and after we moved in 1977 we were the first on our block to get Qube...