Back in 2011 Comcast did just about anything to buy NBCUniversal from General Electric. In fact, it agreed to a long lists of government-imposed limitations.
One of the last of these limitations was a limitation of how much control Comcast could have over Hulu. NBCUniversal was one of the owners, but in order to approve the deal the federal government put limits on what Comcast could do with its NBCUniversal share in Hulu.
Soon, in September 2018, one of the last limitations put on Comcast will end. That means that Comcast will be able to once again take a management role in Hulu; however, it won’t get full control. Disney and News Corp (FOX) also have management control over Hulu. So Comcast cannot just come in and start imposing its will on the service.
Hulu has several non-management owners including Time Warner. As part of a sale of 10% of Hulu to Time Warner last year, Hulu gets rights to Time Warner content for its live TV streaming service. While Time Warner owns 10% it does not have a say in the day-to-day management of Hulu.
Comcast has not said what it wants to do with its new control over Hulu; however, many sources have said the lack of management control over Hulu has been a sore spot with Comcast executives for the last few years.
For now we will have to sit back and wait to see what happens after in September 2018. Change happens slowly, so don’t expect any quick changes because they will likely come slowly if at all. Also remember Comcast only owns 30% of Hulu with News Corp and Disney both owning 30% and Time Warner owning 10%.
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