Virgin Media USA

Following "United States v. The Walt Disney Company", the then-recently-merged Disney/Fox was forced to sell ABC, Marvel Comics, Lucasfilm, Touchstone, the former 21st Century Fox film and TV studios, and its stakes in A&E, ESPN, and Endemol/Shine. Meanwhile, NewsCorp was told to auction off HarperCollins, Dow Jones, and Fox Broadcasting; also, AT&TTimeWarner was made to divest itself of HBO, Turner Broadcasting, DirecTV, its stake in The CW, and the former Cingular mobile network. Several other FCC decisions, including the controversial net neutrality repeal, were reversed by the DOJ.

British media company Virgin, having recently brought Sky's TV channels as part of the transaction that created Disney/Fox, was looking for expansion possibilities. Due to the DOJ flexing their muscles against the near-monopolies and the agency that approved their creation, the USA turned out to be the new pasture that Virgin was looking for after a failed attempt to buy Corus Entertainment in Canada and a regulatory roadblock preventing them from gobbling up Seven West Media in Australia.

Virgin brought:
 * Disney's stake in ESPN
 * Fox Broadcasting (excluding Fox Sports and the FX channels)
 * DirecTV
 * TimeWarner's stake in The CW
 * AT&T Mobility
 * Cinemax (from HBO)

On the night of July 3, 2018, after a final farewell program, the Fox logo faded away for the last time. The next day, a remix of the old NTL-Telewest EPG music started playing, as the Virgin1 network was launched from London and New York. Meanwhile, The CW merged with MyNetworkTV to form Virgin2. On cable and satellite, Fox News and Fox Business became Virgin News and Virgin Business, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNEWS respectively transformed into Virgin Sports 1, 2, and 3, and the Cinemax channels were rebranded as Virgin Movies channels. Meanwhile, DirecTV became Virgin TV, and The Mobile Network Formerly Known as Cingular was merged into Virgin Mobile USA. According to a blog run by a Virgin employee, the July 4 date - America's Independence Day - was chosen as a slightly tasteless joke (being a celebration of independence from Great Britain).