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Disney May Be Trying to Buy More of Hulu From AT&T's WarnerMedia

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday February 28 2019, @01:23PM   
from the do-they-get-a-set-of-ears dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

CNet:

Disney is holding talks with AT&T to buy the 10 percent stake in the streaming service that the carrier holds through its WarnerMedia unit, according to a report by Variety, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the discussions.

That raises the potential of Disney controlling 70 percent of Hulu, up from its current 30 percent stake, and it would leave Comcast as the only other owner.

Is Disney pre-emptively positioning to kill a rival to its soon-to-launch Disney+ streaming service, or does it intend to compete with itself?

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Original Submission

• Disneyfication Disneyfication (Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Thursday February 28 2019, @02:46PM (3 children)

  by looorg (578) on Thursday February 28 2019, @02:46PM (#808122)

  Is Disney pre-emptively positioning to kill a rival to its soon-to-launch Disney+ streaming service, or does it intend to compete with itself?

  Or they could just be buying it and then change the name, now it's the Disney++ streaming service that runs the non-cartoons or whatnot. Why kill what you can just repurpose.

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• Re:Disneyfication Re:Disneyfication (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 28 2019, @03:30PM (1 child)

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday February 28 2019, @03:30PM (#808148) Journal

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%2B [wikipedia.org]

  Disney Plus (often stylized as Disney+) is an upcoming online video streaming subscription service owned and operated by BAMTech, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International.

  The service is set to launch in the United States in the fall of 2019, and will be focused on film and television content from Walt Disney Studios. Original films and series based on new and existing properties are also planned, including Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars-based content.

  It is set to compete with other video streaming subscription services such as Netflix and will complement Hulu, which Disney will have 60% ownership of following its acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

  I dunno what "complement" means here, but if they can drop in content that is available on Hulu, licensed stuff and exclusives, then they can beef up the Disney+ catalog.

  Disney agrees to sell Fox Sports in Brazil to win antitrust nod [reuters.com]

  Getting sports onto the platform could be crucial for making it more than just another Netflix clone. Pay one fee, the parents get their live handegg, kids get their Dismaland.

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  • Re:Disneyfication (Score: 2, Informative) by looorg on Thursday February 28 2019, @03:43PM

    by looorg (578) on Thursday February 28 2019, @03:43PM (#808157)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_original_programs_distributed_by_Hulu [wikipedia.org]

    I guess this is the programming they could acquire then. Seems to be a fairly wide range. Interesting to note a lot of Marvel cartoons. Not sure what would be the big show on Hulu but if I was to venture a guess I would probably go with "The Handmaid's Tale", I personally think it's a shit show but it seems the loonyleft loves that show and think it's somehow prophetic as in what will happen if they don't stop all the evil white religious CIS men.

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• Re:Disneyfication (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday February 28 2019, @06:29PM

  by EvilSS (1456) on Thursday February 28 2019, @06:29PM (#808244)

  Speculation is that they want to keep Hulu for the non-PG content. Kind of like how they used Touchstone for non-Disney movies.

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