The man in the photo above is Wang Jianlin. He's not only about to turn 60 in October, but will also try and acquire Warner Bros. and probably the entire company that owns it, TimeWarner. This means that we'll probably see an upcoming Asian flavor to the Turner channel portfolio one day. Maybe Cartoon City from CCTV 4 will also air on any Cartoon Network.
But what really shocks me is...
...Disney.
Following on with their latest acquisitions (remember their (brief) acquisition of Maker Studios which meant that LPers and Mike Jeavons were now next to Phineas and Ferb a few months back?), it seems that TimeWarner is being swallowed up by Disney. This merger would bring a few benefits:
-For a start, let's check the comic book industry. It seems that the Marvel vs. DC wars will be over. Now imagine seeing a Young Justice meets the X-Men crossover: a mind-blowing combination of superheroes you may have problably seen them all together on fanart on sites like DeviantART. On TV, this means that: if Marvel is busy on making action cartoons, then DC would join it and return to making proper action cartoons.
You might have seen references to DC's action cartoons on Teen Titans GO!:
That's right, in the Teen Titans GO! episode "Starfire the Terrible", Blue Beetle says "#SaveYoungJustice".
What will the merger offer? Will some DC shows air on Disney XD or Disney Channel every now and then? What about those DC movies? Will they air them at night?
-In terms of movies, Disney is willing to have at least half of Hollywood. Can you picture Warner Bros. trying to make the next Pirates of the Carribbean film? Will Johnny Depp appear on The Hangover 3?
-Live-action TV in genres other than kids. If Disney had CNN, TCM, TNT, TBS and other worldwide brands at their posse, this means that they will be sister channels with Hungama TV, JTBC, most ESPNs and Lifetime.
It may probably benefit from the hypothetical fact that Disney will own the most number of channels around on pay TV.
-Now let's take a look at markets aimed at kids. Disney Channel and Cartoon Network are big rivals, but demographics-wise, Disney XD and Cartoon Network are, especially in the United States. Cartoon Network is available in more houses than Disney XD.
But what would happen with the merger? Answer hypotheses:
-Competing genres: Disney XD vs. Cartoon Network and Disney Junior vs. Cartoonito. Disney Channel is alone, considering that there is no girly equivalent of Cartoon Network. Probably if you don't count Puppy in my Pocket airing on Boomerang or when the SE Asian Boomerang (which is now a Toonami) was a bit girl-centric for a while. Speaking of Toonami, the SE Asian channel has to compete with the action shows that air on Disney XD, especially with the Marvel shows (only if you get it, which is available to an est. 100000 people in the region, and half of those get both Disney XD and Toonami).
-Shows. Can you imagine Ed, Edd n Eddy and Phineas and Ferb airing together on Disney Channel or Disney XD because of the similarities? If your Disney Channel airs MLP: FIM, then it could also air on Cartoonito in order to bring bronies to the channel. If your Cartoon Network airs MLP: FIM, then that's the kind of thing that could air on either Boomerang or Cartoonito. Disney's classic cartoons and 90s shows should probably air on 2-3 channels: Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Boomerang.
-Languages. No flowers or sympathy please, after all Disney has more languages than Cartoon Network. It has Serbian subtitles and Greek, Indonesian, Finnish, Cantonese and Telugu dubs. CN could easily benefit and add those languages to their feeds.
-Finally, Portugal. Terrestrially, RTP has rights to air WB shows, movies and cartoons and SIC had rights to air Disney movies and cartoons. I wonder what will happen once the merger happens: probably it's still the same.
In conclusion, some people say that this merger will not happen, but if it happened, would it bring these benefits to TimeWarner and Cartoon Network in general?
I don't want anyone to buy TimeWarner, Disney owning two major movie studios is redundant and will kill Warner Bros, it terms of Kids channels, it would be anti-competitive and I don't think the takeover would be given the all clear anyway.
ReplyDeleteWang Jianlin would probably treat the company as an investment rather than interfere with the operations of the company, but I don't think the Americans would like another media company in foreign hands.