A new report claims that Disney is in active talks with AT&T to acquire WarnerMedia’s 10 percent stake in Hulu. This would enable the entertainment giant to further increase its control of the streaming platform. Disney has a 30 percent stake in Hulu currently and will acquire an additional 30 percent once its Fox acquisition goes through.
In a bid to increase its stake in Hulu, Disney now has to convince the carrier to part with its minority stake. If it’s able to do that, Disney will own 70 percent of Hulu. It would most likely use the service to host content for the adult audience as the family-friendly programming will remain limited to its Disney+ streaming service.
The report doesn’t mention how much Disney is willing to offer AT&T for its 10 percent stake in the company. AT&T’s original investment in Hulu came back in 2016 and was valued at $583 million at that time. The same investment is now believed to have a value of around $930 million.
With increased control of the platform, Disney may have more than enough reasons to further invest more money in the streaming platform. This would enable Hulu to compete more effectively against the likes of Netflix which has been heavily investing in a slate of original content that spreads across various genres.
Filed in . Read more about AT&T, Disney and Hulu. Source: variety