Welp, it’s about to become official: Disney will soon own all of Hulu, scooping up the remaining third that Comcast has held onto since Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox four years ago. The deal has been in the works for a while but will reportedly take effect on December 1.
According to Variety, “(Disney) anticipates it will pay Comcast approximately $8.61 billion, representing NBCUniversal’s one-third stake of the $27.5 billion guaranteed floor value for Hulu that was set when the companies entered into their agreement in 2019,” through the trade notes that figure may change depending on an ongoing appraisal process. Additionally, “Disney will share with NBCU 50% of Disney’s estimated U.S. tax savings resulting from the acquisition of the Hulu stake, with payments expected to be made primarily over a 15-year period.”
Any immediate changes for Disney+ and Hulu subscribers are not yet certain, but in May of this year Disney indicated plans to eventually consolidate all its content—including Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+—into a single streaming app; no word yet on what the price tag on that might look like. In May, Gizmodo reported that Disney CEO Bob Iger saw the streamlining as a way to “ultimately (lead) to a more unified streaming experience.”
