Disney buys majority of 21 Century Fox in historic $52.4 billion deal that will not just reshape Hollywood but also the TV and content production landscape internationally including Africa and South Africa.

On Thursday morning the expected announcement was made that The Mouse House has taken over the Fox Hole when The Walt Disney Company said that it's buying the majority of 21st Century Fox in a historic entertainment biz deal that will have not just massive ramifications for Hollywood but a rippling effect internationally and that will also impact content and TV channels as seen in Africa and South Africa.

The Disney-Fox deal will change Hollywood and the content production and distribution landscape internationally forever.

Disney is doing it so that it can start its own, well-populated subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service that would be able to successfully compete against the growing global dominance of Netflix.

In an memo to Fox staffers, Fox boss Rupert Murdoch hinted at possible firings, saying "we are deeply committed to finding opportunities for our people as well as ensuring that anyone impacted is well taken care of".

Fearful Foxers globally are scared and dismayed, apprehensive about the potential firing of staffers since there's huge global overlap and duplication in terms of the distribution, marketing and international divisions between Disney and Fox - with Disney topping Fox in all areas.

In the deal worth $52.4 billion, Disney will gain control of Fox Networks Group International and its 350 TV channels ran globally in 170 countries.

Several of these channels are seen in Africa and South Africa on several pay-TV services ranging from MultiChoice's DStv, StarSat operated by China's StarTimes Media SA and On Digital Media (ODM), as well as Cell C's new video streaming service, black, and on StarTimes elsewhere in Africa and pay-TV operators like Zuku.

Disney in the deal is also taking over what will amount to a seismic shift in Hollywood's content business.

Diseny takes over Fox's 20th Century Fox movie studio (Avatar, The X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool) and the Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox 2000 film studios.

Disney also gets Fox's TV production studios called 20th Century Fox Television and FX Productions that produces shows for both the FOX channel like The Simpsons but also for other channels like This is Us, Homeland and Modern Family seen on M-Net (DStv 101).

Disney also gets the pay-TV channels like National Geographic and Nat Geo WILD through taking over National Geographic Partners - something that quickly became evident during early negotiations, but also all of the FX channels, and the 39% stake in the Sky pay-TV operator in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Disney also takes over Star India that operates 69 channels reaching 720 million viewers a month across India and more than 100 other countries, with some of the Star pay-TV channels that are also being distributed in South Africa and Africa.

Disney also takes over the international Endemol Shine Group that also operates in Africa and South Africa and Endemol Shine Africa that produces shows ranging from Isidingo on SABC3 to My Kitchen Rules South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101).

In relation to South Africa and Africa, Disney gets things like the nascent production unit, FOX Networks Group Original Productions, that the FOX Networks Group Africa headquartered in Johannesburg for instance conceptualised last year and got off the ground just this year.

Disney will also gain a majority share in Hulu since it will be taking over Fox's 30% share and added to its own existing 30% gets a 60% controlling stake in the American streaming service.

Fox will keep the FOX broadcasting channel in America (but in America only), the FOX News Channel, the FOX Business Channel and the FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2 channels.

It creates the very awkward situation where, although the FOX channel in America belongs to Fox, the FOX channel as seen on DStv and StarSat and FOX and FOX+ on Cell C, will actually belong to Disney that already runs its own set of channels in South Africa and Africa.

In a statement released by The Walt Disney Company, Robert Iger, Disney chairperson and CEO confirmed that Disney is acquiring National Geographic Partners and FOX Networks Group International.

"The deal will also substantially expand our international reach, allowing us to offer world-class storytelling and innovative distribution platforms to more consumers in key markets around the world."

"Bringing on board 21st Century Fox's entertainment content and capabilities, along with its broad international footprint and a world-class team of managers and storytellers, will allow Disney to further its efforts to provide a more compelling entertainment experience through its direct-to-consumer offerings".

"The agreement also provides Disney with the opportunity to reunite The X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool with the Marvel family under one roof and create richer, more complex worlds of inter-related characters and stories that audiences have shown they love."

"Through the incredible storytelling of National Geographic - whose mission is to explore and protect our planet and inspire new generations through education initiatives and resources—Disney will be able to offer more ways than ever before to bring kids and families the world and all that is in it."

Disney says the Fox assets acquisition is expected to yield at least $2 billion in cost savings "from efficiencies realized through the combination of businesses".

In a 1998 episode of Fox's The Simpsons entitled "When You Dish Upon a Star", the show predicted that Disney would one day buy 20th Century Fox and would become "a division of Walt Disney Co."

FOX Upfront 2017: FOX Africa production director Levern Engel: Product placement incredibly valuable but Africa's TV biz should integrate brands in a much smarter way.

In a fascinating talk Levern Engel, director of productions at FOX Networks Group Africa, insightfully explained how product placement on television is incredibly valuable but how Africa's television industry has not yet nearly realised its full potential with this ad-hopping panacea.

Levern Engel urged South Africa and Africa's TV industry, ad buyers and ad agencies to wake up to the broader and bigger possibilities of the fast-growing phenomenon of TV product placement and said that the African continent's TV and advertising biz needs to invest in the effort and expertise to do integrated product placement on television in much smarter ways.

The experienced producer Levern Engel heads up FOX Africa's brand-new production unit, FOX Networks Group Original Productions Africa.

On Wednesday in Johannesburg at FOX Networks Group Africa's FOX Upfront 2017, she wowed the crowd when she addressed advertisers and ad buyers, the press and TV executives from the stage in her incredibly illuminating speech.

In a smart speech worthy of being a TEDx Talk for Television - if TEDx ever were to create a subset platform for eloquent thinkers discussing and unpacking TV's most pressing issues - Levern Engel told attendees that "I want you to imagine".

"I want you to imagine what the possibilities could be on the content production side moving forward. I want us to imagine not what the trends are now, but what the new trends are that we can create in TV content."

Levern Engel said she wanted to use the opportunity to "engage on the issue of how do production industries and media partners work with brands and their agencies, and what opportunities exist that we haven't explored in the way that we could have possibly explored."

"Every piece of content is a business. That's why people now have their own YouTube channels. They're basically creating content, sitting at home. People blogging are making money."

"I envy some of those paychecks I hear bloggers are earning every month. Every piece of content - whether it is digital, print, television, music movies - is a business."

"And creatives only really have two currencies that they can engage with: The first is their time, and the second is their talent. And somewhere along the line - but I think that is changing now - people felt that they shouldn't have to pay for creatives' time," said Levern Engel.

"It was essentially like saying to a baker, 'I want your bread, but I won't pay for it'. I think you know what he's going to say."

"Content is critical to FOX - it's key to our business," she said.

"If we don't have content, we don't have channels - it's that simple. You want to put up a blank screen, that's fine, but I don't think anybody's going to watch it. Advertisers are not going to pay for that."

"So content is critical to FOX's existence. The day FOX said start this business [FNG Original Productions Africa], they said: 'What would be your plan?' I couldn't turn around and say 'Actually I'm not so good with the business stuff, I'm more a creative."

"I think every creative entity needs to understand the business side of business because that's what you're really hired to do even if you have your own entity."


Product placement incredibly valuable - but do it right
"So generally how does content gets financed? I think everybody knows this, I'm not going to teach anyone in the room, right? But I do want to focus on this issue of product placement because I think we haven't mined it in the way that we possibly can."

"Product placement is an incredibly valuable vehicle but you've got to do it right. You've got to do it right," said Levern Engel.

"There were a lot of articles over the past couple of years - even though I was sitting outside of South Africa I was still obviously following a lot of stuff."

"I know Thinus for example, you spoke about the fact that the product placement in the soaps 'is still so obvious guys, you're killing us and you're offending our audience".

"In Empire we've done it. So we've done it on FOX but it was a very classy, very sexy piece of product placement because it was built into the story," said Levern Engel. who then showed this clip:



"So lets imagine something. Let's imagine you have a scene which is set in a hotel lobby. It's a series about a hotel. You have a guest that you have booked in. What is he wearing?"

"Is he wearing a branded cap? A polo shirt. He's in a hurry so he looks at his watch. He takes out his wallet. He opens it up and pays with his Visa."

"We've used 5 brands in the space of one minute of screen time," said Levern Engel, "and that's when you do product placement properly."

"When we sit and we create, we have to say, 'What brands are out there?' And then for every scene that we write, we have to ask what are the opportunities, so that it doesn't feel like it's being forced down viewers' throats".

"The reality is that we live in a world of logos and brands. That's the reality. And when you do product placement, it reflects a reality."

"If we didn't have those brands in there, it would feel like an isolated, separate universe. It doesn't feel connected to the viewer's reality. So product placement is an ideal space for us to start playing."

"Predominantly we have international brands, and that's what enjoys the most engagement with consumers. However, with the economic downturn, African brands have lost equity in the market," said Levern Engel.

"Part of making content is not about creative at all. It actually sits in the realm of trade and investment. You are trading and investing, and there are many partners [in the value chain] that are doing that."

"This is an ideal opportunity for African brands to start regaining ground on their home soil."

FOX Upfront 2017: New production unit, FNG Original Productions Africa, will produce content from Africa for anyone; hub is platform agnostic, says productions director Levern Engel.

FOX Networks Group Africa has started its own South African production unit called FOX Networks Group Original Productions Africa and while it will be producing local South African and African content for the various FNG Africa channels, it will also be producing shows for any other TV channel as a channel-agnostic production hub.

On Wednesday at FOX Networks Group Africa's FOX Upfront 2017, the experienced producer Levern Engel, FNG Africa director for productions, said that FOX Africa's new production unit will not just be making content for FOX channels but for anyone.

"FOX Networks Group decided last year that they wanted to diversify the business and they said: 'What do we do?' And they said 'We do what everybody else in the media space does: We create a production hub because we're in the business of content."

"We should have someone who conceptualise content, make content, commissioning content - that's what we should do. And that was the genesis of FNG Africa's production unit," she explained.

"The unit was only officially registered a month and a half ago and for the moment you will know us simply as FNG Original Productions Africa," said Levern Engel to applause.

"So what is our function? Our function is not only to support the FOX Networks Group Africa channels - the FOX, FOX Life and National Geographic channels."

"Does FNG Original Productions Africa support FOX and FOX Life? Of course we do. Do we support National Geographic? Yes. Do we support anybody else? Can I produce for Netflix? Yes. Can I produce for - pick a channel? The answer is yes," said Levern Engel.

"FNG Original Productions Africa is platform and channel agnostic. FNG Original Productions Africa is a production unit that is completely agnostic. It's only ambition in life is to produce quality content that comes out of Africa."

"FNG Original Productions Africa has a scripted slate, it has a non-scripted slate, but all of these productions originate from Africa - most of them will be produced in Africa. So that's the function of FNG Original Productions Africa," said Levern Engel.