Disney Buys 21st Century Fox; A "Net Neutrality" Decision; The Work of the Natural History Museum
Aired December 15, 2017 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: I'm Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
If you don't like me hearing say, "Fridays are awesome", you're going to get a break. This is our last show of 2017, and we will be back with
jingle bells on Thursday, January 4th.
First story is about a major media business deal in the U.S. Disney plans to buy 21st Century Fox. The deal is significant partly because of its
size. These companies are known worldwide and they're two of the biggest players in Hollywood.
Disney owns the Disney Studios, stores, theme parks and cruise line. It owns TV channels like ESPN and it has part of the Internet streaming
service Hulu. Under the Fox umbrella, there are sports networks, the FX networks, National Geographic, hundreds of international channels and also
part of Hulu.
And streaming entertainment is the big reason why Disney is spending $52.4 billion on Fox. It wants to expand its content online to better compete
with rival companies like Netflix. In fact, Disney is taking its products off Netflix as Disney prepares to launch its own Internet streaming
service. What's not part of the deal: Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network and Fox Sports. They'll be separated and formed into a new
company.
When will all this happen? The deal is expected to take at least a year to go through, if it goes through. If first has to be approved by the U.S.
government, which will consider whether the new company would have too much control over the market and what consumers pay.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted yesterday to relax the government's rules concerning "net neutrality". The vote was 3-2, with
three Republicans voting to repeal the rules and two Democrats voting to keep them in place. The repeal won't take effect immediately. That should
happen sometime next year.
And what it means is that Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon will no longer be prevented from speeding up or slowing down
Internet traffic from specific Websites or applications. They'll also be allowed to prioritize their own content. But if they do any of this,
they'll have to show publicly that they did and then the government will decide whether it's fair or not.
Perspective on whether this is a good or bad thing depends on whom you talk to.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JON SARLIN, CNNMONEY PRODUCER: If the Internet is a highway, vehicles or content providers can't pay more to use a special fast lane. Think of it
this way: all content is created equal in the eyes of the Internet provider. That's the basic tenet behind net neutrality. So, if the
Internet is neutral, then the Internet provides are treated basically like public utilities. Comcast or AT&T, they couldn't slow down or speed up
certain content. But if net neutrality ends, some companies are going to be stuck in that slow lane.
The rules that made the Net neutral were put in place during the Obama administration.
