The sign will be seen at the 2019 deadline Hulu reception held at Paramount Theater in Paramount Studio Lot, on April 7, 2019 in Hollywood, California.
Rachel Murray | Getty Images
Disney I agreed to pay Comcast It concludes the long-standing valuation process with $438.7 million for its interest in streaming service Hulu.
In 2023, Disney announced it intends to buy a 33% stake in Hulu in Comcast. At the time, Disney paid $8.6 billion. This reflects Hulu’s guaranteed minimum of $27.5 billion. The companies agreed to the floor in 2019.
The Disney announcement was not surprising as it was widely reported that CNBC and other Disney were trying to acquire full ownership of Hulu. Disney acquired two-thirds of Hulu’s ownership when it acquired Fox Corp.’s entertainment assets.
Following that initial payment, Disney and Comcast have concluded an evaluation process that was originally expected to end in 2024.
Disney said the appraiser reached a rating under the guaranteed floor, and Comcast’s NBCuniversal appraiser “reached a rating that exceeded the guaranteed floor value.” The process was concluded on Monday by a third appraiser, according to SEC submissions.
The final deal is expected to close before July 24th. Disney records payments in its third quarter profit and loss statements for the third quarter to “net income attributable to non-controlling profits.” It is not expected to affect Disney’s previous guidance for adjusted revenues for 2025.
“We are pleased that this has finally been resolved. We have formed a productive partnership with NBCuniversal and wish them good luck,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement.
Iger added that the completed acquisition paves the way for “deep, seamless integration” of Hulu and Disney+ content, and “deep, more seamless integration” of the ESPN Direct-to-Consumer streaming app called ESPN.
Disney has already begun integrating the two existing services, and is being offered together in a bundle alongside ESPN+, the current sports streaming offering.
Comcast’s NBCuniversal has focused on building Peacock, a streaming service, since its launch in 2020.
“Hulu was a great start with streaming that generated nearly $10 billion in revenue for Comcast and a significant audience of NBCuniversal’s world-class content,” a Comcast spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “We really hope for Disney with Hulu and are grateful for the collaborative way our team managed the partnership.”
According to Disney’s latest revenue report, Hulu had over 50 million subscribers as of March 29th. In total, Disney had 180 million streaming subscribers, most of which came from Disney+. Comcast reported in April that Peacock had 41 million subscribers.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCuniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
