What’s so special about Fox’s assets?

The Walt Disney Co. agreed to pay $52.4 billion for them. Comcast thinks they’re worth $65 billion. So what, exactly, is so enticing about most of the assets of Rupert Murdoch’s decades-old media empire, 21st Century Fox?

DealBook decided to break down why Disney and Comcast are clamoring to buy up a large chunk of Fox. • Movie and TV studios The attraction of Fox’s movie studio is clear. 20th Century Fox owns blockbuster franchises like “X-Men” and “Avatar,” as well as a highly regarded arthouse-movie shop in Fox Searchlight. All told, Fox’s studios collected more than $1.4 billion at the box office last year, according to Box Office Mojo.

Fox’s television studio produces shows that run from “The Simpsons” to “Modern Family” to “This Is Us.” Disney and Comcast are both planning to develop their own online streaming platforms, and in that domain Netflix and Amazon — which now both produce original content — are the biggest competitors. Gaining a content producer with a track record of developing hits would allow Disney or Comcast to better compete with the tech giants. • Cable channels Whoever prevails would also get hold of FX, the home of highly regarded TV shows like “The Americans” and “American Crime Story,” as well as National Geographic. Neither channel is a huge moneymaker, but extra content to push onto streaming platforms could still be valuable. • Regional sports networks Fox owns 22 regional sports networks, which focus on sports in markets like Florida, the Carolinas and Ohio. Both Disney and Comcast have sports operations that would mesh well with those properties.

• Disney owns ESPN Combining it with Fox’s regional sports networks would create a colossus. It could also prove attractive enough to viewers to help stem the subscriber losses that ESPN has suffered in recent years as a result of cord cutting.