9 Implications Of Disney Potentially Buying Fox

Disney's reported interest in Fox isn't just a long-winded way to bring the X-Men into the MCU. The Mouse House has just as much to gain from getting its hands on the studio's array of TV properties, maybe more.

Claiming FX and all its associated channels would give Disney plenty of ammunition for its upcoming streaming service, adding hit shows including Gotham, 24, Prison Break and The X-Files to its repertoire.

Then there's The Simpsons, the longest-running scripted primetime show in US TV history, a series that set the standards on the small screen for well over a decade, but has been running on fumes for even longer.

Despite steadily declining ratings and rapidly declining quality, Fox refuses to send Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie to the animated retirement home, partly because the show shaped the company in the TV sector in the early 1990s and is such an important part of its legacy.

The series' latest renewal order will take it beyond 2020, but could its days be numbered if Mickey Mouse got his gloved hands on the yellow-skinned family?

Disney won't have the same brand loyalty to The Simpsons as Fox and are more likely to see the show for what it's become: a pale imitation of its former self. With this in mind, Mickey and co may decide that over 600 episodes is more than enough to pad out its streaming service and draw the line there.

The more new seasons of The Simpsons they make, the more it waters down the legacy of America's most famous animated family, and Disney is more likely to see the reality of this situation than Fox, who have clearly been viewing the show through rose-tinted specs for years.