Disney Now Sole Owner of Hulu


In completely unsurprising news, per Variety, Disney has officially acquired the majority stake in the streaming service, effective immediately.

“We are now able to completely integrate Hulu into our direct-to-consumer business and leverage the full power of The Walt Disney Company’s brands and creative engines to make the service even more compelling and a greater value for consumers,” – Disney CEO Bob Iger

Under the deal, Comcast’s NBCUniversal will continue to license content to Hulu through 2024. However, by next year, NBCU will be able to reduce programming previously licensed exclusively to Hulu (continuing to make it available to Hulu on a non-exclusively for a reduced fee). And by 2022, NBCUniversal will have the right to cancel most of its content-licensing agreements with Hulu. And just because we need another one, NBCU is planning to launch itsown free, ad-supported streaming service sometime next year.

Read Disney’s press release below:

The Walt Disney Company and Comcast Corporation announced today that Disney will assume full operational control of Hulu, effective immediately, in return for Disney and Comcast entering into a “put/call” agreement regarding NBCUniversal’s 33% ownership interest in Hulu. Under the put/call agreement, as early as January 2024, Comcast can require Disney to buy NBCUniversal’s interest in Hulu and Disney can require NBCUniversal to sell that interest to Disney for its fair market value at that future time. Hulu’s fair market value will be assessed by independent experts but Disney has guaranteed a sale price for Comcast that represents a minimum total equity value of Hulu at that time of $27.5 billion.

What do you guys think of this news? Is Disney getting a little to large for your liking?

Author: K. Alvarez

A king without a throne.