Earlier this week, Disney announced that it had finalised a deal with Comcast to take full control of Hulu. This follows a 2019 agreement between the two companies, when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, resulting in Disney becoming the majority stakeholder.  As part of the deal, Disney or Comcast could force Disney to buy out Comcast’s stake in Hulu, based on the streaming service being valued at a minimum of $27.5 billion.

Disney and Comcast went through the negotiation process, with each company having its own valuation of Hulu made by a third party, but with their final valuations being billions of dollars apart, a third company was brought in to mediate. Disney paid Comcast over $8.6 billion for the 33% stake in Hulu that Comcast owned, and it’s been confirmed that in July, Disney will pay an additional $439 million to complete the deal. 

During an interview with CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked what the finalisation of the deal will mean for customers, to which he replied:

Well, we’ve already bundled the apps in a way that is, I think, really easy to use with ingesting the Hulu product onto the Disney Plus product. But obviously, this is a step in the direction of putting these apps together fully. making basically not only a seamless experience for the consumer, but as I said earlier, essentially a one-app purchase. And that’s clearly important for us because with a combination of the great quality branded programming on Disney+, and with the great value that Hulu provides with not only volume in terms of general entertainment, but quality, this is a great combination. And this is, again, a big step in the direction of us enabling all of this.

This comment suggests that Hulu may be integrated into Disney+ at some point in the future, providing a unified platform similar to how Disney+ operates internationally.  Back in 2021, a new general entertainment hub called Star was added to Disney+ in many countries around the world, including in Canada, Australia and the UK. 

The Star hub offered all of the general entertainment content from Disney’s studios, such as 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, FX and ABC.    One of the reasons Disney used the name ‘Star,’ which was also acquired as part of the 20th Century Fox deal, was that it wouldn’t increase the value of Hulu, resulting in Disney having to pay more money to Comcast.

With the deal coming to a close, I have long suspected that Disney will eventually rebrand the Star hub into Hulu around the world, to match the US, since it makes cross-promotion and synergy much easier.  Especially following the recent deal with Reliance in India, to spin off Disney+ Hotstar and other Star-related brands into a new company. 

In the past few weeks, Disney has even started to use the Hulu brand in Canada for the first time to promote some originals like the “Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives”.

During the CNBC interview, Bob Iger also confirmed that with the Comcast deal being completed, they are planning on rolling out the Hulu brand on Disney+ around the world.

And also turning Hulu into a more global brand as part of the Disney Plus offering.

When the Hulu brand may start rolling out outside of North America is unknown, though it might wait until after the deal with Comcast is finalised in July. Disney will also need to do a global marketing campaign to showcase that Hulu is part of Disney+ and replacing Star. It might also hold off on doing this until it publicly reveals its plans for Hulu and Disney+ in the United States, to tie everything together.

It wouldn’t come as a huge surprise to see Disney continue its slow drip feed method of adding the Hulu brand onto Disney+ internationally, swapping out the Star logo for Hulu on promotional material or thumbnails, to get international audiences used to the Hulu name, since outside of the US and Japan, Hulu isn’t a established brand.

What do you think of the Hulu brand expanding globally? Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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