00:00What doesn't Mickey Mouse have his gloves in these days? Following the Disney Fox
00:03acquisition, Disney is taking over full operational control of Hulu. Disney, the
00:08majority owner of Hulu, revealed Tuesday morning that it has entered into an
00:12agreement with Comcast that'll allow it to be the controlling shareholder of the
00:16streaming service. As part of the agreement, Comcast can require Disney to
00:20buy founding stakeholder NBCUniversal's interest in Hulu as early as January
00:242024. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement,
00:27Hulu represents the best of television with its incredible array of award-winning
00:31original content, rich library of popular series and movies, and live TV offerings.
00:36We are now able to completely integrate Hulu into our direct-to-consumer business
00:40and leverage the full power of the Walt Disney Company's brands and creative
00:44engines to make the service even more compelling and a greater value for
00:47consumers. The deal marks the end of a long, complex corporate history for Hulu,
00:51which launched in 2008 as a joint venture of News Corp and NBCUniversal. Disney
00:56didn't buy into Hulu until 2009. With Disney's acquisition of the Fox assets
01:00earlier this year, it became the majority owner of Hulu. But because NBC was a
01:05founding stakeholder, it retained certain control over major decisions about the
01:09fundamentals of the business. It also held three board seats that will be vacated
01:12as part of the new deal with Disney. Iger said Tuesday morning that the deal
01:16would allow Disney to truly make Hulu the third prong in its direct-to-consumer
01:19strategy, which includes ESPN Plus and the soon-to-launch Disney Plus. The CEO says
01:24the plan is to bundle the three platforms for consumers. He also suggested that
01:28content not available on family-friendly Disney Plus from Fox's film and TV
01:32studios, FX, and ABC News would be a fit for the Hulu platform. For much more on
01:37this story, head to THR.com. Until next time, for The Hollywood Reporter News,
01:40I'm Tiffany Taylor.
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