The most important story in streaming this fall aside from the writers’ and actors’ strikes might unfold in the next few weeks. The conversation about whether Disney will buy Hulu outright from Comcast or whether Comcast will claim Hulu is set to come to a head after an announcement by Comcast that it has moved the deadline for Disney to decide which way to go to late September. Originally the deadline was January of 2024 leaving things in the streaming and cable replacement world up in the air for much longer.
The choice will be between Disney agreeing to buy Comcast out of the 33% percent of the streaming service that it has owned essentially since the service was established as a three-way partnership between Disney. Newscorp and Comcast. Disney took the third of the company owned by Newscorp in the merger that brought 20th Century under the Disney umbrella leaving Comcast still in the mix as it developed its own streaming service Peacock.
Hulu is a very unique property in the streaming marketplace because it sort of encompasses all of the aspects of the modern streaming ecosystem. Hulu began as a successful ad-supported tier free on PCs before launching on mobile streaming devices as Hulu Plus as a subscription service with ads. Over time the company dropped the “Plus” designation from its name and updated the service making it subscription-based on all platforms. Hulu also has an ad-free on-demand tier as well, though the majority of its subscribers use the less expensive ad-supported choice. On top of that Hulu is a player in the live cable replacement service market. Users can choose to sign up for a cable-like big bundle that includes major broadcast networks, sports channels like ESPN’s family of networks (also owned by Disney) as well as access to the full on-demand library of Hulu and Disney+ with ESPN+ thrown in for good measure.
Considering the major investment Disney has made in its bundle we expect Disney to negotiate a buyout of Hulu from Comcast as it continues to position the company towards a future built around streaming and direct-to-consumer services instead of the old-fashioned middle-man approach afforded by cable and satellite services.
SO… how much more is this going to cost people that have Disney plus now? Hulu is $7.99 with adds, and $11.99 for add free. Paramount plus just shot all of us subscribers in the face taking on showtime ( in my opinion a crappy failing service) and changed their whole price/packaging structure. I understand streaming services are evolving, but changing by incorporating weak services that can’t stand on their own 2 feet and forcing them on the subscriber is taking us right back to the whole reason we cut the cord on cable and satellite to begin with, forced to pay for content we don’t want.