Taking full control of Hulu bolsters Disney’s commitment to direct-to-consumer distribution of its content.
Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp. jointly announced Tuesday that Disney would take operational control of the streaming video site Hulu and that they’d struck a deal under which Disney would purchase Comcast’s 33% share.
Under the agreement, Comcast can require Disney to buy its interest in Hulu by January 2024. Disney can also require Comcast to sell its stake at market value at that time. The deal establishes a minimum total valuation of Hulu at that time of $27.5 billion, which means Comcast could come away with more than $9 billion for its stake as long as it continues to invest in the service.
Disney acquired the controlling stake in Hulu in March when it bought much of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. Now Disney has operating control, which gives the Burbank entertainment giant free rein to run the service as it wishes. This portion of the deal was important because Disney and Comcast have had a testy relationship recently: Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts jumped into the bidding for Fox last year, driving up the price Disney ultimately had to pay.
