Disney announced that it has agreed to make a strategic acquisition of Hulu's 33% stake, $8.61 billion in stock, previously held by No. 1 cable TV provider Comcast on November 1, 2023. Disney explained that it will exercise its acquisition rights under a put/call agreement between the two companies. Disney, which already owns a 66% stake in Hulu through its acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019, will have a full ownership stake once the deal is finalized. The deal is expected to create greater synergies with its own streaming Disney+ and ESPN+. However, Comcast is likely to want more share of money, so negotiations are not likely to be easy.

The key to this negotiation is how much Hulu's true value changes between 2019 and 2023. Hulu's strengths and weaknesses are all too clear. A consortium of Hollywood studios created to compete with Netflix, Hulu offers live programming and access to content from multiple studios (FX, FOX, NBCUniversal, ABC) in one place. A.k.A all in one streaming. It also has high ad revenue and is one of the only major streaming services (along with Netflix) to be profitable.  However, the downside is that most of its content is licensed and it doesn't have much original content IP. Some originals, such as the TV series  ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ are doing well, but they are not mainstream yet. It's unnerving that its future is tied to IP negotiations.

Hulu's valuation is also a big message for Korean local streaming services. How content aggregation streaming is valued in the capital markets tells us a lot about our future. Both Wavve and Tving are models of coalitions of Korean content studios and TV networks. We look at the future of the Korean streaming service  from Hulu. Moreover, if Hulu(after finishing the deal) goes overseas in earnest, Korean streaming providers will have to consider their global strategy to include Hulu.

디즈니(Disney)는 2023년 11월 1일(미국 시간) 케이블TV 1위 사업자 컴캐스트(Comcast)가 보유했던 훌루(Hulu)의 지분, 33%, 86억 1,000만 달러 주식을 전략 인수하기로 했다고 밝혔다. 이와 관련 디즈니는 두 회사 간 풋/콜 계약에 따라 자신들의 인수 권리를 행사할 것이라고 설명했다. 지난 2019년 21세기 폭스(Fox) 인수로 훌루의 66% 지분을 보유하고 있는 디즈니는 이번 계약이 완료되면  전체 지분을 가지게 됐다.자체 스트리밍 디즈니+, ESPN+와 더 큰 시너지를 낼 수 있을 것으로 보인다. 하지만, 컴캐스트는 더 많은 금액을 받고 싶어하는 만큼, 협상은 쉽지 않아 보인다.