A few weeks ago, reports started to come out from Rich Greenfield at LightShed that Disney is likely to sell Hulu. Now Citi Bank is agreeing with Rich Greenfield and released their own report today that Hulu may be up for sale.
“Following fiscal 1Q23 results, we believe the company is less interested in a mass market DTC offering. This raises the possibility that Disney may sell its Hulu stake,” the Citi Bank analysts explained.
Disney has also confirmed it is open to the idea of selling Hulu.
During Disney’s recent earnings ccall, Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked if Disney would be open to selling off Hulu. In response, he said everything was on the table. “Everything is on the table right now, so I am not going to speculate whether we are a buyer or a seller of (Hulu),” Disney CEO Bob Iger said. “But I obviously have suggested that I’m concerned about undifferentiated general entertainment, particularly in the competitive landscape that we are operating in, and we are going to look at it very objectively and expansively.”
Comcast has already said they are interested in buying Hulu. Right now, though, Disney and Comcast have a deal to buy Comcast’s remaining 33% stake of Hulu early in 2024. Changing that deal to Comcast buying Hulu from Disney seems to be something both sides are open to.
Comcast could merge Hulu and Peacock into a single streaming service helping both services fight off a growing list of competitors.
According to Citi Bank, they estimate the sale of Hulu would be between $19.8 billion and $27.5 billion.