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 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago

Unironically based

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year 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 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 22 points 1 year 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 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[–] LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch 32 points 1 year 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 1 year ago

Something better than this exclusivity bullshit

[–] kboy101222@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year 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 1 year ago

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

[–] xpinchx@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year 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.

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 1 year 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 1 year ago

$27.24 is what hit my bank account

[–] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

That's what I'm here for

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

Let me know when they buy The Pirate Bay.

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago

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

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

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

[–] oakey66@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago
[–] MacAttak8@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago

One can hope.

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year 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 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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 1 year ago

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

[–] nowwhatnapster@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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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