Comcast has collected what it hopes will be a first payment from Disney for its stake in Hulu, marking “the beginning of a process” to value the streamer, company President Mike Cavanagh said at a media conference Monday.
The anticipated $8.61 billion dollar check arrived Friday, he told investors at a UBS media conference in NYC.
Disney said it that it will acquire the remaining 33% stake in Hulu it doesn’t already own from the NBC Universal parent. A deal between the Hulu owners established a floor of that amount. Any additional payout, or not, will depend on an evaluation process underway with both companies and their investment banks. The process was moved up — to this fall from January of 2024 — and the Disney check was due Dec. 1.
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The 2019 agreement included a put/call that allowed Comcast to ‘put’ its stake to Disney, or the Bob Iger-run company to buy it. Iger wasn’t sure at first but ultimately decided owning the asset in full made sense.
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The “check cleared, it’s in the account,” Cavanagh said. “We expect, and certainly hope to get more than that once the process ends. But it’s really just the beginning.”
On streaming, Cavanagh said Peacock is at 30 million paying subscribers and said it will hit peak losses of $2.8 billion this year. It was at 28 million at Comcast’s last earnings report in October.
Hitting on the film studio behind Oppenheimer, he said it’s possible there could be potential shifts in the release schedule but is upbeat on the 2024 slate. He praised strong leadership, good talent relationships and partnership with creators. “I think that our reliance, rather than on formulaic…has been more around originality and creativity,” he said, “and I think that feels a little bit like what the moment calls for in Hollywood.”
there was a time when companies like k mart, sears, toys r us, and blockbuster were seen as infallible behemoths. don’t doubt for a second that the same couldn’t happen to disney.
Or Comcast
“….the check cleared…” talk about a diss.
Am I missing something or is Disney owning Hulu a duplication? Most of the content on Hulu isn’t owned by Hulu, and really whoever owns it is buying the pipes to deliver content .. which Disney already has in Disney+
Another reason why buying 21st Century Fox looks even worse now. Just add that 8 billion price tag to that total and that number will go up. I do wonder how much money Peacock, Netflix, Disney+(Hulu) and others make from ads on the limited ad options. Also Peacock has 30 million paid subs. I am curious if all the streamers count comp.subs in that number or if there is a separate number since the comp sub still will count towards selling ads.
Comcast already took its content and left. Hulu has plenty of its own content and it’s not a duplication with Disney, which is franchises and kids stuff.
Disney wanting to offer a combined app for those who subscribe to both services or shutting down Hulu altogether and just going with Disney+ isn’t possible for Disney without them paying Comcast to exit the picture.
Then don’t lay anyone off and don’t fire anyone
More should go, if they are not needed, employees become a drag on profits. They definitely need to lay off more in the film and tv division. It’s obvious that Disney has too many employees when an animation film costs $100 million more than Sony or Universal.
Good on them on the other side Iger should be fired