Last month, Hulu bought back AT&T's stake in the streaming service for an eye-watering $1.43 billion, but now Comcast is ceding its control to Disney, which will attain complete control of Hulu going forward.
As Variety reports, Comcast has agreed to hand over full operational control of Hulu to Disney with immediate effect. In return, Comcast receives a number of desirable perks, including the agreement that it will sell Disney its Hulu stake within five years for a minimum of $9.2 billion.
The other perks of the deal for Comcast NBCUniversal include both the ability to cancel content-licensing deals with Hulu by 2022, but more importantly, any Hulu-exclusive deals can be canceled within one year. In return, Hulu Live can continue to enjoy access to NBCUniversal channels until 2024 and Hulu will continue to be offered through Comcast's Xfinity X1 platform.
Ending the Hulu-exclusive licensing deal within a year is important because NBCUniversal has its own streaming service launching in 2020. It's a free service and therefore will rely on ad-supported content to generate a profit. If that can be exclusive content, then there's much more chance of people tuning in.
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For now, Comcast will retain its 33 percent stake in Hulu, but under the agreement Disney can buy Comcast out in January 2024 either at the request of Comcast or requirement of Disney. The minimum amount to buy the stake is based on Hulu being valued at $27.5 billion. That could and probably will change by 2024, but Comcast is guaranteed at least $9.2 billion.
While it all sounds a bit convoluted, when the deal plays out Comcast NBCUniversal is getting all its content back and a big payday in just over four years. Meanwhile, Disney can do what it wants with Hulu going forward and free of partners.