Disney and Comcast announced a deal under which Disney will assume 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.
While Disney now has full operational control, the agreement states that Comcast’s ownership in Hulu will never be less than 21 percent. Comcast also agreed to extend the Hulu license of NBCUniversal content until late 2024, and the company will still distribute Hulu on its Xfinity X1 platform. However, NBCUniversal can terminate most of its content license agreements after that three-year period.
The deal also extends Hulu’s license to stream NBCUniversal content, and to include NBCUniversal channels on its Hulu Live service, until “late” in 2024. In addition, even though NBCUniversal has given Hulu exclusive streaming rights to some of its content, it will be able to bring that content to its own service in exchange for reducing Hulu’s licensing fee.
