Comcast to divest Hulu stake in five years
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 15 May 2019

After weeks of rumours, US cable giant Comcast has agreed to sell its stake in the Hulu streaming service in five years but it will be bowing out of voting on the OTT company’s future, starting immediately.

Disney will end up with total control of the streaming service. AT&T’s WarnerMedia division sold back its 10% stake to Hulu last week, in a deal that valued Hulu at $15 billion, with AT&T’s interest worth $1.43 billion. FOX meanwhile divested its stake as part of the deal with Disney for the Fox media assets.

Comcast could sell its remaining stake at a total-company valuation of $27.5bn or whatever Hulu is appraised at in five years.

In the meantime, Disney will pay Comcast to continue to licence NBCUniversal content for the Hulu platform. NBC will also be run the same content on its own streaming platform, expected to launch next year.