Comcast CEO Gives Update On Disney’s Hulu Deal
Disney and Comcast are currently in final negotiations over the final valuation of Hulu. Back in 2019, when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, it became the majority owner of Hulu, resulting in a put/call agreement being agreed upon. This would allow Comcast or Disney to buy out Comcast’s stake in 2024 for a fair market value of a minimum of $27.5 billion.
Last year, Disney announced it would activate the put/call part of the contract to force Comcast to sell its remaining stake in the streaming service Hulu to Disney. Disney has already paid Comcast $8.61 billion for its stake, but the deal won’t be complete until the final valuation has been made.
The valuation will be assessed as of September 30th, 2023. Both companies hired different companies to value Hulu: With Disney hiring JP Morgan, and Comcast hiring Morgan Stanley to represent them.
JP Morgan has valued Hulu at $27.5 billion, while Morgan Stanley has valued it at more than $40 billion. Because the valuations are more than 10% apart, a third independent party, RBC Capital, has been brought in to calculate Hulu’s value, which would determine how much Disney would have to pay.
During a recent Q&A at the Bloomberg Screentime event in Los Angeles, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was asked about the current situation with Hulu, to which he replied:
“We’re going to figure it out eventually. We worked out an amicable way to extricate [the company]. We’ve already taken [many] billions of dollars out on a several hundred-million dollar investment, and maybe more to come, we hope.”
Disney has previously said that it hopes that the deal will be finalised during the 2024 calendar year, so hopefully it won’t be too much longer until Comcast’s out of the picture, allowing Disney to move forward with its plans for Hulu.
Roger’s Take: Hopefully, Comcast and Disney can get this deal sorted as soon as possible, as it’s very obvious that Disney is making moves to bring Disney+, Hulu and ESPN closer together, but has its hands tied behind its back, unable to promote Hulu On Disney+ properly. I do think at some point, once Comcast’s stake in Hulu is resolved, we could eventually see Hulu fully merged into Disney+, so it allows them to fully consolidate their marketing, branding, production and logistics to compete with Netflix and Amazon.
It will also allow Comcast to move forward with its plans to build out Peacock, potentially allowing them to pick up some other assets like Paramount or Warner Brothers Discovery. It’s also interesting to hear that the Comcast CEO is hoping to get some more money, as it’s been very bullish about Hulu’s valuation being much more than Disney wants to pay. This could be because they are very close to finalising a deal and don’t want to ruffle any feathers or are getting shareholders’ expectations in line.
When do you think Disney will finalise its Hulu deal with Comcast? Let me know on social media!