Sinclair will pay $10.6 billion to acquire Fox Regional Sports Networks from Disney. Sinclair Broadcast Group has agreed to pay $10.6 billion for 21 regional Fox Sports networks that Walt Disney agreed to sell in order to obtain regulatory permission for its $71.3 billion acquisition of substantial sections of 21st Century Fox. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2018. Fox Sports is a division of 21st Century Fox. It covers sports news and stories for television, radio, online, and mobile devices. Its brands include NFL Football, MLB Baseball, NBA Basketball, NHL Hockey, UFC Fighting, and X Games. In August 2016, Disney announced it would be acquiring most of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion, including the Fox Sports division. The deal was approved by the boards of both companies and was finalized on March 20, 2017. Disney already owns ESPN, which produces many sports channels under its own name as well as through partners such as NBCUniversal (which operates Golf Channel). By combining these two networks, Disney can offer more comprehensive coverage than either company could alone. This should help attract more viewers, who might otherwise turn to other channels if they cannot watch their favorites play games or train for them. The deal was criticized by some politicians and sports writers because it would give Sinclair too much power over content produced by those networks.