Comcast must now renegotiate contracts with the firm it beat to buy Murdoch’s platform

Sky leaves the FTSE 100 this week with its new owner facing the threat of Disney, which narrowly missed out on acquiring the pay-TV group, playing hardball over deals to screen its content, which include the Star Wars films and hits from the Marvel universe.

Some of Sky’s key TV and film contracts could be at risk after US pay-TV giant Comcast triumphed over Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox – now owned by Disney – in a high-stakes auction.

Comcast’s move thwarted Murdoch’s plan to roll Sky into his $71bn (£55bn) deal to sell Fox’s entertainment assets to Disney. Missing out on Sky means that Disney, the biggest Hollywood studio and now owner of the fourth largest in Fox, will be faced with a key decision about the future of its content on a platform owned by a rival.

Sky’s current film contract with Disney expires in 2020 and talks over renewing it are expected to include discussions about Fox content, which includes the Simpsons and the X-Men films.

One analyst said Disney’s drive to take on Netflix with its own streaming platform puts question marks over its relationship with broadcasters like Sky.

“Disney has aggressively set out its stall as wanting to become a direct-to-consumer player,” says Sarah Simon, of research firm Berenberg. “Disney missed buying Sky and competes with Comcast. Disney now doesn’t have any incentive to renew its programming deals with Sky unless it’s on extremely good financial terms.”

In the US, Disney has already said it is pulling its content from Netflix, which will cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in annual license fees, as it looks to go direct to consumers with its own entertainment streaming service, Disney Play, next year. The company has already launched a streaming service for its ESPN sports content.

Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, has said launching its own service is the world’s biggest entertainment company’s “biggest priority” for next year – and it should be viewed as the start of a global play.

The Guardian has learned that Sky has recently struck wide-ranging content deals with two of the other major Hollywood studios. Sources say these deals were extensions of existing agreements and struck well ahead of expiry, suggesting Sky is keen to lock-in prime content early ahead of what will be tough negotiations with Disney.

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“Owning Fox gives Disney a huge amount of negotiating muscle,” said Simon. “Disney is in an increasingly clear strategic position: continue to sell content to aggregators or go direct to consumers.”

Sky’s business has long benefited from paying substantial sums to maintain a stranglehold on the rights to be the first to air Hollywood films in the UK. The company has exclusive deals with the so-called big six studios – Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Universal Studios – with its monopoly drawing the scrutiny of competition regulators eight years ago.

Sky’s deal with Game of Thrones maker HBO, which is part of AT&T-owned WarnerMedia, is also up for renewal in 2020.

Brian Roberts, the Comcast chief executive, will be in London this week as Sky is due to be de-listed from the stock market by Wednesday. The de-listing marks the end of an era – Sky first floated 20% of the business in December 1994 – and the broadcaster will be re-registered as a private limited company.