The US Department of Justice has cleared Disney's planned takeover of much of 21st Century Fox. The condition is the Walt Disney Company must divest 22 regional sports channels in the US. The proposed settlement must still be approved in court.
The Department said that without the required divestitures, the proposed acquisition would likely result in higher prices for cable sports programming licensed to pay-TV providers in each of the local markets the Disney channels serve. To streamline agency clearance, Disney agreed to divest the channels rather than continue with the Antitrust Division’s ongoing merger investigation.
Completion of the acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval in a number of other countries.
