Disney announced on Wednesday that it plans to pay $8.61 billion to buy the 33% stake in Hulu that Comcast owns. This will give Disney full control of the popular streaming service. However, Disney may end up paying more after an appraisal of how much Hulu is really worth.
Both companies agreed to have an independent evaluator look at what Hulu was worth as of September 30th. If the appraisal says Hulu is worth more than $27.5 billion, the minimum price they agreed on 5 years ago, Disney will have to pay Comcast the difference. We don’t know when the appraisal will be done, but Disney expects it to be sometime next year.
Back in 2019, Disney and Comcast made a deal for Disney to eventually buy Comcast’s share of Hulu. They originally planned for the sale to happen in 2024. But recently they decided to move the date forward to September 30th, 2022. The $27.5 billion minimum price was just an estimate from 5 years ago according to Comcast’s CEO. He said Hulu is much more valuable now than it was back then.
Hulu just reported little growth in the number of subscribers recently. In response, Disney announced price hikes for all its streaming services including Hulu. Starting in October, the ad-free version of Hulu went from $14.99 to $17.99 per month. The version with live TV rose from $68.99 to $75.99 each month. Disney will give more details about its plans for Hulu when it announces financial results next week.
