What Comcast couldn't achieve two years ago through an acquisition, it may achieve through a simple agreement.
Comcast made a surprise $66 billion bid for Disney in 2004. Of course, regular readers of The Deal were not nearly as surprised as the rest of the world because media reporter Richard Morgan predicted the deal over a month before its announcement. Ultimately, the hostile bid failed leaving ill-will between the two companies.
Realizing buying another major media player would result in the same outcome, Comcast set about a new strategy: secure content through agreements. It first lined up CBS Corp. to provide select TV shows through its video-on-demand service. NBC Universal followed a few months later offering a combination of free and paid content from NBC and its various cable networks. ABC and Fox shows remain unavailable as VOD options for most Comcast subscribers.
However, ABC is expected to join the bandwagon, according to The Wall Street Journal. Not only will it offer ABC hits such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" on Comcast's VOD service for free, it will also offer content from its cable networks and Disney's film library probably for a fee.
Ironically, Comcast's failure to acquire Disney created an opportunity to offer more diverse content because rival media giants would have been unlikely to sign agreements with the cable service. —Matthew Wurtzel
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