• by Wayne Friedman , January 31, 2020

Further incorporating Hulu, the premium on-demand and live TV streaming service, into Walt Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer & International division has resulted in the departure of Randy Freer, Hulu’s CEO.

“With the successful launch of Disney+, we are now focused on the benefits of scale within and across our portfolio of DTC businesses,” stated Kevin Mayer, chairman of direct-to-consumer & International, at Disney.

He added that integrating Hulu, which launched in 2008, “will allow us to more effectively and efficiently deploy resources, rapidly grow our presence outside the U.S. and continue to relentlessly innovate.”

Freer has been CEO of Hulu since October 2017. Before Hulu, he was president-CEO of Fox Networks Group, a position he had since October 2013.

In May 2019, Disney agreed to buy out Comcast’s 33% share in Hulu for $5.8 billion — when the deal closes in five years.

Hulu currently has a collective 28 million subscribers from all its digital TV video services: on-demand, ad-free and ad-supported services, as well as Hulu with Live TV, a digital pay-TV package of live networks.

In a 2019 10K filing with the SEC, Disney said Hulu pulled in $670 million in advertising and $1.27 billion in subscription fees.