Con.Sol.I.Dation

The smaller, non-Disney Murdochian Fox buys an indy animation studio ...

The Lachlan Murdoch-led Fox has snapped up Bento Box Entertainment, an animation company that produces Bob's Burgers (on Fox) as well as series like Glove & Boots (on YouTube) and Paradise PD (for Netflix). ...

"You can’t walk around the Fox lot without noticing a decades-long passion for animation. It is in the Fox DNA and has served legions of fans, partners and investors,” Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said Tuesday in a statement. "As we grow Fox for the next generation, it only makes sense we would expand our animation capabilities by bringing on board the best in the business: Bento Box."

As demand for TV content grows, Fox becomes the latest studio to bring an animation studio in-house. Netflix launched its own animation studio last year to ramp up its production, as did CBS with its Eye Animation division. ...

The acquisition arrives only days after Fox shelled out $265 million to buy a majority stake in digital consumer finance marketplace Credible Labs. Fox Corp., formed amid the sale of 20th Century Fox, National Geographic, FX and other assets to Disney, is comprised of Fox Entertainment as well as Fox News Channel and Fox Sports.

Collier, who joined Fox from AMC in October, added, "The Bento-Fox combination brings Fox front-door access to the next wave of the genre’s creative leaders, while still maintaining Bento Box’s focus on all that makes them a terrific partner for outside producers."

The founders of Bento Box came from Film Roman, back when FR was making The Simpsons and Spider-Man (in one of its earlier iterations.)

Bento, like Rough Draft, Wild Canary and Titmouse studios, has been independent since its beginning but a major supplier of animated product. The market demand for animation continues strong and Subscription Videon On Demand has accelerated the push for more cartoon series.

The number of people in Southern California working on animated content has never, ever been higher. No doubt Bento Box fetched the owner-operators a good price.