With its asynchronous moves in 2017, the Department of Justice, which filed suit to block AT&T-Time Warner, will be a major factor in 2018 on the deal front, as will the FCC.

Doug Creutz, an analyst with Cowen, issued a note just before Christmas raising his price target on Disney and predicting a final blessing by the DoJ. “In most of the main areas where the DoJ could have an objection — consolidation of TV studios, ownership of the regional sports networks, taking control of Hulu — we think Disney has a fairly compelling pro-consumer argument to make,” he wrote, compared to the comparatively “vague” assertions of AT&T.

In one alarm bell that Hollywood should heed, he added that the merger of the two film studios could be what gets tripped up by regulators given that Disney and Fox could control more than one-third of domestic grosses in a typical year.

With Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm already delivering best-in-class results, Disney would likely agree with leaving the Fox studio behind or allowing another buyer to snatch it up, he wrote. “The film studio is far less crucial to Disney’s OTT plans and doesn’t offer them much that they don’t already do better.”