DIS Walt Disney Co

By WSJ City 

Walt Disney and Comcast have struck a wide-ranging deal that turns operational control of Hulu to Disney and gives Comcast the option to sell Disney its stake in the content-streaming platform.

KEY FACTS

   -- Hulu has more than 25m subscribers and its subscriber reach grew 
      dramatically in the past year. 
 
   -- Comcast can require Disney to purchase the one-third stake its 
      NBCUniversal subsidiary owns in Hulu. 
 
   -- This could happen as early as January 2024. 
 
   -- Disney can require NBCUniversal to sell at a fair market value. 
 
   -- Disney has guaranteed that Hulu's equity value at the time of a deal will 
      be at least $27.5bn. 
 
   -- Disney and Comcast will also fund Hulu's recent purchase of AT&T's 9.5% 
      stake in the streaming platform. 
 
   -- That deal increased Disney's interest in Hulu to 66% and Comcast's stake, 
      through NBCUniversal, to 33%. 

Why This Matters

Disney, which is launching its own direct-to-consumer streaming service called Disney+, plans to integrate Hulu into that business. For Comcast, the deal allows it to capitalise financially if Hulu is successful over the next few years, even as the cable giant pursues its own path in streaming video.

A fuller story is available on WSJ.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 15, 2019 02:12 ET (06:12 GMT)

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