Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the entertainment group would be “absolutely prepared” to buy Comcast’s 33% share of Hulu before its contractual deadline in 2024.
At Disney’s D23 Expo, Chapek said talks to bump up the date were “sporadic” and “long-running.”
“It’s possible,” he said during a Interview With Variety when asked about buying Comcast ahead of the contract’s deadline. “But it depends on the other partner’s instincts to be willing to discuss what is already successful.”
On the current timeline, Disney — which owns 67% of Hulu — will take the remaining shares for a still-undetermined value in 16 months. Historically, it’s not exactly clear where Disney stood on the matter, with a former Hulu employee recently telling TheWrap that the streamer hasn’t been considered a “top company priority” since it was purchased in early 2019. was.
However, the recent price hike for Hulu’s ad-supported and ad-free tiers and the inclusion of its content on Disney+ internationally suggests otherwise.
According to Chapek, Disney intends to lean on Hulu as part of its “soft” to “hard bundle” integration plans. He added that the top requests from Disney+ customers are for more “general entertainment” or content that isn’t specifically targeted at younger audiences. Chapek said he still sees opportunities to get more Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar fans into the streaming service.
“The No. 1 opportunity we have is to add more general entertainment,” he said. “When people used to watch ‘Dumbo’ with their kids and put them to bed, and now it’s 7:30 – those same people wouldn’t want to see ‘Bambi’, would they? They want to see something else, something One that is still the capital “D” is Disney. And the elasticity of that is far wider than we imagined, as demonstrated through our experience in Europe, on Disney+, where we have much more general entertainment [on the platform],
He went on to say that Hulu could be the answer to his “general entertainment” need. “The appetite for general entertainment is enormous,” he said. “We have a lot of general entertainment content within The Walt Disney Company. We don’t have the full capacity to use it because of our complex ownership situation. [in Hulu]At least for the next 16 months.”
