U.S. gives Disney-Fox deal antitrust approval

REUTERS - Walt Disney Co has won U.S. antitrust approval to buy Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's entertainment assets for $71.3 billion on the condition that it sell all 22 regional sports networks owned by Fox, the Justice Department said on Wednesday (June 27). The Fox assets have been the subject of a bidding war between Disney and Comcast Corp , both of which want to expand their own entertainment businesses with Fox's hit TV shows and movie franchises such as the "X-Men" superheroes and "The Simpsons," to compete with fast-growing digital rivals Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc. The deal does not include the nationally broadcast Fox News, Fox Business or Fox Sports networks. Disney, which owns sports network ESPN, has agreed to divest all of Fox's regional sports networks, which provide sports programming for regional and local markets, such as Fox's YES Network, which airs New York Yankees baseball games around the New York metro area. The development could be a setback for Comcast, which has yet to respond to Disney's latest offer for Fox, unveiled last week. Comcast, whose offer is worth $65 billion, declined to comment. Analysts have antitrust concerns about Comcast's competing bid, which would add Fox's movie and TV studios to Comcast's NBC Universal.