 Additionally, NBC Sports' portfolio was also aided in May 2004 by gaining the rights to air National Hockey League games; however, the network would not air any NHL games until 2006 due to a lockout that canceled the league's 2004–05 season.On July 17, 1996, News Corporation announced that it would acquire New World outright in an all-stock transaction worth $2.48 billion, making the latter company's ten Fox affiliates owned-and-operated stations of the network; the deal was completed on January 22, 1997.Today, six of the New World stations that switched to Fox (KDFW, WAGA, WJBK, KSAZ-TV, WTVT and KTBC) are owned by Fox Corporation – a company created from the acquisition of the since-renamed 20th Century Fox and select other assets owned by 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company (the parent of ABC, which could not legally acquire the Fox network and the television stations group due to the FCC's "dual network" rule that bars common ownership of two of the four major broadcast television networks); 21st Century Fox itself was created from the 2013 split of News Corporation, and the company spun off its U.S. broadcasting businesses prior to the closure of the Disney merger.