Disney Has 'Dialogue' With Comcast About Selling Hulu Stake

Disney has held discussions with Comcast about selling its 30% stake in Hulu, Disney CEO Bob Iger said on the company’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday evening.

Disney now controls 70% of Hulu, after acquiring Fox’s 30% stake in an acquisition earlier this year, and AT&T’s 10% stake last month. That leaves Comcast as the owner of the remaining 30%.

“We're going to be mindful of how that's managed, knowing we have a fiduciary responsibility to the third-party owner, Comcast,” Iger said on the call. “We've publicly confirmed there has been dialogue with Comcast about them possibly divesting their stake.” 

A key sticking point for Comcast is Hulu’s desire to pay for streaming rights. Right now, Hulu is an active buyer of Comcast shows for its streaming service.

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"On Hulu, the relationship with NBC, it's very much in everybody's interest to maintain,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said on his company’s last earnings call.

On Wednesday, Iger suggested that a deal in which Comcast sold its stake in Hulu to Disney could maintain NBC programming on the service. “You can expect that if [a sale] were to occur, there probably would be some ongoing relationship as it related to programming,” Iger said.

Ultimately, Iger sees Hulu as a potential replacement for the traditional TV bundle, calling it “the best consumer television proposition out there” due to its access to live news and sports and large library of programming.

 
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