Fox-Disney Deal Scrutiny Could Focus on Streaming

Walt Disney Co.’s planned $52.4 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox’s major content assets could face antitrust analysis of the streaming market that includes Hulu LLC and Netflix Inc., practitioners told Bloomberg Law.

The parties’ leverage over streaming content could hurt rival distributors, advertising buyers, other content providers, and consumers. In sports, efforts by Hulu and Amazon.com to stream events like Thursday Night Football could upend the traditional way that regulators look at TV programming mergers.

Disney and Fox say that they need to consolidate to compete in a market where digital content providers are growing in power.

The future ...