THB #225: Hulu, Simply

Oh my, how media loves the idea of mergers and acquisitions.

And 2 out of 25 floated ideas may actually happen… with 1 of those occasionally being predicted ahead of time. The reality is, if the media smells your plan before it happens, you are doing it wrong.

The theorizing about which I am most sick of hearing right now is about Hulu, the 2/3 Disney-owned, 1/3 Comcast-owned streaming veteran. There is a deal locked in for Disney to acquire Comcast’s third no later than 2024 based on an independently-set valuation of the company.

But because media loves pulling stuff out of its buttocks and Comcast’s Peacock still not seeming to be a world-beater since its launch, the conversation started about Comcast buying Disney’s 2/3rds out of Hulu instead of Disney buying Comcast’s 1/3.

There have been some very deep and complex analyses of the issue… but the issue itself is not deep or complex.

If Comcast bought Hulu from Disney, it would not be Hulu as it currently exists. It would be almost nothing but a shell. And now, more so than ever.