What happened
Shares of DISH Network Corp (DISH) jumped 13.7% in June, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, as the bidding war over 21st Century Fox heated up and media companies saw benefit from that. Sometimes a bidding war over one company can lift a whole sector.
So what
It's no coincidence DISH Network's stock jumped when Comcast's $65 billion bid beat out Disney's original $52.4 billion offer for most of Fox. When Disney countered again with a $71.3 billion offer investors got even more bullish.
Image source: Getty Images.
The reason both Disney and Comcast would spend so much on Fox is that they're pushing into streaming services. DISH Network happens to be one of the leaders in streaming with Sling TV, so it would logically benefit from more customers getting their cable TV online, rather than from a dish or cable cord.
Now what
While it's easy to lump all media companies together when a bidding war breaks out, I think it's worth understanding that DISH Network is in a precarious position here. Disney isn't willing to pay over $70 billion for Fox because it plans on selling content through other streaming services, it wants to cut out the middleman and go straight to consumers. Comcast would also like to build a critical mass of content that would make it an attractive streaming service, rather than selling content through a third party.
As popular as Sling TV is with 2.2 million subscribers, it's really just replacing the old cable structure of content companies selling to a cable company, who then sells to consumers. If content companies go directly to the consumer the company is in real trouble. In that respect, the bidding war over Fox isn't good news and may show what a precarious position the company is in.
