The U.S. Justice Department granted approval of Disney's $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets so long as Disney sells Fox's 22 regional sports networks, according to Variety.
Justice Department officials said Disney ownership of the sports networks would bring anti-competitive conflicts because it owns competitor ESPN.
"American consumers have benefited from head-to-head competition between Disney and Fox's cable sports programming that ultimately has prevented cable television subscription prices from rising even higher," said Makan Delrahim, assistant attorney general and head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, Variety reported. "Today's settlement will ensure that sports programming competition is preserved in the local markets where Disney and Fox compete for cable and satellite distribution."
The settlement agreement still requires the approval of a federal judge, but Disney is hoping its success with regulatory hurdles encourages Fox to accept its offer over an expected counteroffer from Comcast in bidding that could reach up to $90 billion.