Disney

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...

In early August, Disney revealed that it plans to pull all of its movies from Netflix and launch its own streaming service in 2019. Users were understandably curious as to which Disney-owned brands that might include, particularly once Disney CEO Bob Iger referenced the company's interest in potentially branching off Marvel and Star Wars into their own, separate streaming services. Today, Iger ...

Two years after the original "Force Friday" launched in celebration of new toys and gadgets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney is now gearing up for "Force Friday II," which will see the launch of new merchandise centered on Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Force Friday II will run September 1 through September 3, with toys being sold at Apple, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, and more (via Reuters). ...

During its quarterly earnings report yesterday, Disney revealed that it plans to remove all of its content from Netflix and debut a streaming service of its own in 2019. The announcement didn't make clear which exact Disney-related pieces of content might be found within that service, but more information from the earnings report has been shared today by TechCrunch, with Disney CEO Bob Iger...

Disney plans to pull all of its movies from Netflix as it prepares to launch its own streaming services, the company said in its latest earnings report (via CNBC.) Starting in early 2018, Disney will launch an ESPN video streaming service that will feature approximately 10,000 MLB, NHL, MLS, collegiate, and tennis sporting events every year. Then, in 2019, Disney will launch a...

RBC Capital Markets raised its AAPL price target to $157 today, up from $155, as it believes iPhone sales were stable to modestly better than expected in Apple's second quarter, which ended on March 31. The investment bank's lead Apple analyst Amit Daryanani said the company's iPhone mix continues to remain positive, with "more" Plus-sized models sold in the quarter than it previously...

Steve Jobs' history with the now-acclaimed animation studio Pixar began in 1986 when the former Apple CEO purchased The Graphics Group, which was one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm, renamed it Pixar Animation Studios, and began guiding it into a burgeoning feature film production company. In a new book called To Pixar and Beyond, written by former Pixar chief financial officer...

The Walt Disney Company has announced it is acquiring a minority 33 percent stake in BAMTech, a video streaming company previously formed by Major League Baseball, for $1 billion. Disney has the option to acquire majority ownership of BAMTech in the coming years. Disney said it will collaborate with BAMTech to launch and distribute a new ESPN-branded multi-sport subscription streaming service...

The Walt Disney Company is nearing a deal that will net it a one-third stake in Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the streaming division of MLB whose business is valued at around $3.5 billion (via Bloomberg). According to those close to the deal, an agreement between the two companies has not yet been officially finalized, but once it is the contract will allow Disney to purchase another 33...

Disney today announced the end of its Disney Infinity line of games and accompanying figurines, which are being discontinued as of today. Disney Infinity games, such as the one available on the Apple TV and iOS devices, will officially no longer be updated and the studio that developed the games is being shuttered. In a blog post, senior vice president of Disney Infinity John Blackburn thanked ...

When the Apple TV launched, Disney sold (and continues to sell) a $100 Disney Infinity 3.0 Star Wars-themed bundle that included a Disney Infinity Base and controller designed to work with the Disney Infinity 3.0 game on the Apple TV, encouraging people to adopt Disney Infinity 3.0 on the set-top box. At the time, Disney promised to bring the full Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition console experience ...

Disney today launched a new Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition Starter Pack for the fourth-generation Apple TV, bundling a SteelSeries Nimbus Wireless Controller and a Bluetooth-enabled Disney Infinity Base in a package that's now available for purchase directly from Apple retail stores. The new Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition game for the Apple TV is available on the device as of today, and in addition...