A few short years ago, Disney was going all-in on the Streaming Wars. Fast forward to 2023, and a cash-strapped Mouse House is looking to save billions. Many of those cuts are reportedly to come from entertainment, according to Bob Iger, and now even a sale of Hulu isn’t off the table.
From a recent CNBC interview…
Iger said Thursday in an exclusive CNBC interview with David Faber that “everything is on the table” with regard to Hulu’s future.
“We are intent on reducing our debt,” Iger said. “I’ve talked about general entertainment being undifferentiated. I’m not going to speculate if we’re a buyer or a seller of it. But I’m concerned about undifferentiated general entertainment. We’re going to look at it very objectively.”
This is stark contrast to his predecessor (successor?) Bob Chapek, who claimed that he would’ve purchased the rest of Hulu in 2019 if possible.
Disney currently owns 66% of the streaming platform after the Fox acquisition, with rival Comcast owning the remaining 33%. The deal goes back to 2019, and states that Comcast can force Disney to buy (or Disney can require Comcast to sell) the remaining 33% in January 2024 at a guaranteed minimum total equity value of $27.5 billion.
It’s possible that Comcast could actually acquire Hulu off of Disney to help bolster Peacock, and the word is that Iger is already talking to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts about possible solutions.
More on this story as it develops.
[Source: CNBC]
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