Hulu may find itself without content from Comcast if the company takes advantage of an opening in its carriage deal. A story in Fierce Media said according to the Wall Street Journal, Comcast has a small window early next year in which it can exercise an option to jump out of its content licensing deal with Disney, NBCU shows including “Saturday Night Live,” “The Voice” and “Will & Grace” will reportedly leave Hulu in the fall of 2022.
The vast majority of major titles are from the NBC catalog but Comcast owns multiple cable networks with content on Hulu. The breakdown looks like this:
NBC: 44 shows
SyFy: 1 show, 12 Monkeys
Bravo: 13 shows with the majority of them being Real Housewives Shows
E: 9 shows mostly reality including Keeping up with the Kardashians and “I am Cait”
Universal Kids: 3 Shows
Making Saturday Night Live a Peacock exclusive would be a win for the streamer. Recent reporting showed that SNL tended to be the top show streamed on the service despite it also streaming on Hulu. Labrea has also been a big winner in streaming numbers and would become a major asset if the show continues to post strong numbers over the next few years. Those people might have to get comfortable in that hole till Peacock breaks even.
Disney has begun to use Hulu as a service to highlight more adult-centered entertainment from its IP including a lot of the content from FX. Recently the house of mouse also began to promote a new original movie from the preditor/Aliens universe called Prey. With other originals like The Great and A Handmaids Tale on the way back it may be a good time for Disney to move on from assets it will unlikely be able to build around after 2024.
The move would both strengthen Peacock’s position and continue Disney/Hulu’s pivot to becoming a standalone service and cable replacement.
