Earlier this month, Disney sent its first payment of over $8 billion to Comcast for its stake in Hulu, as part of a put/call agreement the two companies made in 2019 after Disney gained a majority stake in the streaming service.  There will be another payment by Disney to Comcast in 2024, when the two companies finish negotiations on the final value of Hulu, which third parties will set.

Just days after the payment was made, Hulu On Disney+ launched in the United States, bringing hundreds of shows and films from the Hulu catalogue into Disney+ for subscribers to both platforms.   Hulu On Disney+ has launched in a beta version, which means that not all of the features are included, and it’s still slightly blocked off from the rest of Disney+.  

Another major difference with Hulu On Disney+ from the standalone version of Hulu, is that some of the content isn’t available.  This is for a variety of reasons, including premium add-ons not currently being included in the beta and also licensing agreements.

Due to the nature of Hulu, which was at some point owned by Warner Brothers, Fox and Comcast, it brings together content from many different studios and networks, it has a lot of licensed content, and it regularly adds new items and removes titles almost daily.   This is very different from Disney+, which occasionally has titles taken away, but the majority of titles stay continuously available.

During a recent article by Deadline about the combined Hulu On Disney+ platform offering more content than Netflix, it stated that over 300 titles are set to be removed following Disney+’s buyout of Comcast’s Hulu stake.  However, this could still change ahead of the official launch of Hulu on Disney+ in March 2024.

Last year, Comcast decided to end its contract with Hulu for next-day episodes, moving its latest shows over to its own streaming platform, Peacock.  So it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to think that Comcast will eventually remove the rest of its content from Hulu, to focus on its own platform.

While there is lots of licensed content available on Hulu on Disney+ from studios like FOX, Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount, which all have a Network hub available, there aren’t any Network hubs for Comcast’s studios like Universal Studios, Syfy, Telemundo, Dreamworks, Bravo, and E!  And there is much less Comcast owned content available on Hulu On Disney+ than on just the standalone version of Hulu.  Indicating that an agreement between the two companies wasn’t made ahead of the launch of Hulu on Disney+.

It’s still possible that Disney and Comcast could come to a deal to keep this content available on Hulu, but with Disney looking to cut costs and no doubt wanting a clean split from working with Comcast, I personally feel it’s more likely that Comcast’s content is eventually removed, to boost Peacock. 

Do you think Comcast will remove all of its content from Hulu and Hulu on Disney+?  Let us 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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