Disney Has Taken Full Control of Hulu

A couple of weeks ago it was reported that Disney was looking to buy the remaining 30% of Hulu from Comcast. Well, they worked fast on this one and closed the deal with the media company. Disney has taken full control of Hulu.

Disney and Comcast announced the deal, which sees Disney assuming full operational control of Hulu, effective immediately. “Within five years, Comcast has agreed to sell its Hulu stake to Disney for at least $5.8 billion.”

Disney chairman/CEO Bob Iger had this to say in a statement:

“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.”

According to Variety, “under the deal, Comcast’s NBCUniversal will continue to license content to Hulu through late 2024. However, as soon as next year, NBCU will have the right to pull back programming previously licensed exclusively to Hulu (continuing to make it available to Hulu on a nonexclusive basis for a reduced licensing fee). By 2022, NBCUniversal will have the right to cancel most of its content-licensing agreements with Hulu. NBCU is planning to launch a free, ad-supported streaming service next year.”

It’s pretty incredible to see what Disney has done in the past 10 years by acquiring Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Fox, and now taking full control of Hulu. Disney is truly a force to be reckoned with.