IN A WAR OF THE TITANS, THE PRIZE IS EYEBALLS

Giants Disney and Comcast are locked in a battle over assets that ensure massive, global viewership

Afull-fledged bidding war for key assets of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox erupted on Wednesday — media and cable giant Comcast announced its plans for an all-cash bid that would top an offer already on the table from Walt Disney Co.

At the time of going to press, a Comcast statement said that it was in “advanced stages of preparing” the offer for the television and entertainment assets that Fox agreed to sell to Disney in a $52.4 billion (₹340600 crore) stock deal announced in December.

Comcast, which owns the NBC Universal mediaentertainment group and is the largest US cable operator, said that it was prepared to pay more than Disney for the operations, which don’t include Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, Fox Broadcasting and major sports channels.

“Any offer for Fox would be all-cash and at a premium to the value of the current allshare offer from Disney,” the Comcast statement said.

Whichever deal becomes final, it would dramatically reshape the media and entertainment landscape and scale back the Fox empire created by Murdoch, 87.

Murdoch, who with his family controls 21st Century Fox, agreed to the tie-up in December that would give Disney the famed Fox studios in Hollywood along with Fox’s international TV operations and US cable entertainment and regional sports channels. Included in the sale is Fox’s 39% stake in the British pay TV operator Sky, a panEuropean broadcaster with operations in Britain, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Spain.

A Fox deal with either Disney or Comcast could face intense scrutiny from US antitrust regulators because of the implications for the television and cinema sectors.

A tie-up with Disney would create a giant with up to 40 per cent of US box-office revenues, according to some estimates.