this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Disney’s paying more than $8 billion for Comcast’s stake in Hulu.

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[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 51 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Considering they are already trying to sell a $15 subscription with ads, they can suck my ass regardless of their corporate overlord.

[–] snekerpimp@lemmy.world 42 points 10 months ago (3 children)

“Everyone is leaving Disney+, but keeping Hulu, we must own Hulu so we can make it seem like our subscribers line went up!”

[–] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 21 points 10 months ago

Comcast made the deal to sell their shares to Disney back in 2019. This was supposed to happen in 2024, but both companies agreed to move up the deadline.

[–] Staccato@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Sorry guys it's my fault. I canceled my D+ from my Hulu account when the prices went up. Didn't realize Disney would stage a full-on takeover of Hulu to get me back.

[–] clearleaf@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

"Alright now that we fully control Hulu, let's make some changes around here to REALLY make that line go up."

[–] blackwateropeth@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I’m about to start cutting everything lol. I’d rather be bored instead of buying another sub human CEO a fifth yacht. Bottom line go brr? Nah fam count me out.

[–] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Unironically based

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

sub human

I choose to believe that you mean submarine human, and will gladly kick in for any CEO who would like to ~~join~~explore the titanic

[–] lorez@lemm.ee 36 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Isn't it time to call the anti-monopoly?

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Is that where you unflip a board game, get 3 hours of your life back, and your kids start talking to each other again?

[–] lorez@lemm.ee 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

No no, anti-Monopoly is fine. I like the image it evokes in my mind of flipping tables. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

[–] LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch 32 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Eventually, Disney is going to own all of corporate media. Your choices are going to be bland, flavorless, Disney mass market appeal, or independent cinema.

There just needs to be a better way to market and distribute independent media.

[–] BossDj@lemm.ee 10 points 10 months ago

Something better than this exclusivity bullshit

[–] kboy101222@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The fact no one has created an indie streaming service boggles my mind. You'd think a company like A24 or Criterion would try something

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

I can’t imagine how difficult those contracts would be to negotiate

[–] xpinchx@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Thanks for the reminder to cancel Disney+ I just saw my last invoice went up to like $27/mo or something. Fuck all this lol.

[–] AngryDemonoid@lemmy.lylapol.com 3 points 10 months ago

Cancelled mine recently when i saw the price almost doubled. Only still have Netflix, Dropout, and plex. Netflix is next on the chopping block.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Do they charge taxes and fees above the monthly? Just curious. Have never paid for, nor ever want to pay for the service. The Hulu+, ESPN+, Disney+ combo claims to be $24.99/mon, that's nuts! You combine a few of these streaming services together and it's more than basic cable.

Library card for the win.

[–] xpinchx@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

$27.24 is what hit my bank account

[–] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

That's what I'm here for

[–] Lexam@lemmy.ca 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Let me know when they buy The Pirate Bay.

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 4 points 10 months ago

I'm pretty sure that's a new attraction at California Adventures.

[–] oakey66@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Disney already over saturated marvel and Star Wars. I can’t wait for them to ruin regular tv streaming.

Piracy about to make a huge comeback.

[–] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I read an article a couple weeks ago that said it's on the rise

[–] oakey66@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago
[–] MacAttak8@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Does this mean Disney will be moving most/all their content to Disney+ in the US like it is in other countries? Isn’t Hulu a predominantly American used streaming service?

[–] deur@feddit.nl 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Hulu will continue existing and Disney+ will likely not take on any content. They cater to two target markets and they own both, so that works for them.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 10 months ago

It also helps obscure the monopolistic back-to-cable tactic they're playing. "Oh we have Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+, our customers get to choose what they want! There's value and choice and freedom!"

Now I want to watch Thank You for Smoking.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

if they are smart they will make hulu more of free service like it originally was and then put their played out content on it as an alternative to allowing it on a competitors service.

[–] deur@feddit.nl 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hm, I don't think that is impossible and I'd love to see it go that way. I would love for a streaming service to make any step towards being good for the consumer instead of the share holders.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 1 points 10 months ago

Its sorta both. Its like friends and seinfeld. They are big enough hits for streaming platforms to vie for them but when their various shinies lose their shine then they just make ad money off them (well and privacy violation money)

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 2 points 10 months ago

One can hope.

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No, they got 60% of Hulu when they bought FOX. WarnerMedia sold back their shares after the merger, giving Disney 67% and Comcast 33%.

Comcast and Disney set up a deal where either one could force a buyout of Comcast’s shares. The buyout is now happening and Disney will own 100% of Hulu.

[–] Copernican@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, this is the context missing from the article. There's the requirement of one party from the 3 party joint venture (fox, comcast, disney) to buy out the other parties if one acquired a majority steak. There was also a lot of politics because Comcast and Disney both got into a bidding war with each other to acquire Fox as well as Sky. So in some sense, although Comcast lost the bid for Fox, they forced Disney to make over inflated bids for Fox and were then on the hook to buy Comcast out for all of Hulu. So there's a lot of bad blood recently, but it it also goes back to Comcast's attempt at a hostile takeover of Disney back in the early 2000s that is probably like HBO's Succession type stuff.

[–] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Thanks for the information. I wasn't aware of any of that

[–] nowwhatnapster@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Curious, I see most people complaining about this merger, but I have also seen the argument that there are too many streaming services with exclusive content. Wouldn't this acquisition work towards consolidating content again under one subscription. Similar to how Netflix used to be the main player in the space before competition came along.

I only have spotify at the moment. I used to Netflix and Hulu.

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The problem isn't so much the number of streaming services as it is the fact that they're all vertically integrating so each has their exclusive content and is the only game in town to get it. If production and distribution were broken up so that the same content were available from a number of competing platforms, it wouldn't matter that there were "too many" because you wouldn't feel like you needed them all to avoid missing out.

[–] dogebread@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago

A world where you could picked based on the user experience of the apps instead of slice of content? Sign me up. To hell with that HBO Max app.

[–] XbSuper@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I'm so glad we don't have Hulu in Canada, it makes Disney actually worth it. I don't think I'd be willing to pay for either if the content was split. As it is, it's my most used streaming service. I hear the common thought is it's just for kids, but that couldn't be further from the truth, there's a ton of adult stuff on there (I don't even have kids).

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[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

literally just cancelled disney+ last week. now they're gonna buy hulu and jack the prices up?

[–] Pipoca@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Disney used to own 66% of Hulu. All they did was buy the remaining 33% of it.

All this really changes is a bit of accounting and divying up the profits. Disney rolled Disney Streaming and Hulu into one combined engineering team several years back. They own ESPN, too.

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So when Disney's price hike doesn't produce the amount of new money that selling the same thing is expected to produce do you think they'll just take it on the chin and say "Oh well, we're already very profitable and successful we dont need extra money" or do you think they'll raise the price of Hulu while cutting the quality of service?

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[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I would love to just get a tiny glimpse of the future in say 10-15 years. At this rate I would bet Disney will own literally all media of every type....

We'll have Disney Entertainment, Nestle Foods, Amazon Everything, and Musk Internet. That will be the entire economy.

This is why I don't look forward to the future lol

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

this was always the end stage of capitalism: one megacorporation that everyone rents everything from, permanently entrenched and either in bed with a government they've bought and paid for or so powerful on its own that government dare not attempt to do anything to regulate it.

[–] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I don't think musk will corner the Internet market. I don't have a timeline in mind, and I could be wrong, but as established car makers start getting into the EV game with gusto I think Tesla could end up losing a lot of value and absorbed by one of the big international car manufacturers as their inhouse EV brand.

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[–] pandacoder@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Until you hiked my bundle from $7.50 to $19/mo I was a loyal customer who supported you getting sued and broken up.

Now I just can't wait for you to grow large enough that you get broken up and I give you zero shekels.

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