By the way, not one to ever be caught flatfooted or miss a gag, the Simpsons' Al Jean tweeted the pic below just before the deal was finalized. It was drawn by creator Matt Groening.

Sorry, you're right. But if they control most of the network's biggest program supplier, it could be argued they also effectively control the network. A lot of what's on Fox comes from 20th Century (or is it 21st now?) Century Fox. It will be interesting to see if the future programming comes from another source now that that financial stake is gone.

Either way, I stand by my original point - having Disney control so much potential programming on both ABC and Fox is not good for the industry. 

My relatives in the U.S. have told me too many times that their cable bill has gone up and up and up. When they ask why, too often the answer has been The Disney Channel and ESPN - both owned by Disney and both on basic cable - have demanded higher rates and it's passed on to the consumer. It's the way they do business and this isn't likely to change anything. It may only make it worse. 

It always seems to be Disney causing a lot of these increases, although ESPN admittedly incurs a ton of ever-increasing expenses in sports rights fees. But then maybe it shouldn't be on mandatory basic! (The counter argument is that they wouldn't exist without those forced fees. My response? If you can't sustain yourself with a willing customer base, perhaps that's all you need to know.) 

There are a lot of Americans who don't have young kids and could care less about sports, who are forking over a ton of money every year for expensive stations they don't want or ever watch. It's what makes people hate cable companies - as if they needed more excuses!