The battles ahead in Comcast bid for Disney

The battle could take on many permutations in coming weeks, from counteroffers by other firms to a hostile takeover of Disney stock and full replacement of the current Disney board.

"There will be a lot of give and take on the details of how exactly this plays out, if at all," says Linda Varoli, senior analyst for Merger Insight.

But if it does, critics worry that all this vertical integration will prevent consumers from having a genuine choice when they turn on their cable TV. Just look at what could happen with sports. Disney owns ESPN, the national sports cable channel. Comcast owns the Golf Channel and Outdoor Life Network. There are already battles over ESPN's pricing to cable operators who want to keep their costs down.

"To me, the biggest thing is what kind of competitive advantage will the company derive in cable and satellite with its rivals," says Andrew Zimbalist, a professor at Smith College and an expert on the business of sports.

For example, Comcast could charge rivals more money to pick up ESPN or one of its other sports channels. Direct TV operators could find themselves frozen out of important sports events or see their pricing models change. "What kind of power plays will be effectuated as a result of these vertical integrations?" asks Mr. Zimbalist.

If the takeover happens, hockey fans will definitely see a change. Disney owns the Mighty Ducks, and Comcast owns the Philadelphia Flyers. The NHL does not allow one organization to own more than one team. "One of them will have to go on the block," says Zimbalist.

There are also questions about Disney's creative viability if it becomes part of the huge Comcast bureaucracy. Corporate analysts like Larraine Segil of Vantage Partners note that managing entertainment companies such as Disney is more of an art than a science. It's dependent on "a world of ephemerals" like public taste and the demands of creative, sometimes quirky artists.

Other analysts worry about the impact of the cable company's voracious appetite for its round-the-clock viewership schedules.

"It seems like all of corporate America is so wedded to the bottom line and stockholder demands to the exclusion of quality and vision," says Dr. Thomas Inge, a pop culture scholar who tracks the Disney company.

But advocates of the merger point out that right now, Disney is suffering from Eisner's penchant to control everything - from the color of hotel rooms to the endings of movies. Comcast is known as a corporation that just wants to make money, and pretty much leaves its divisions alone.

• Ron Scherer contributed to this report.

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