By Joe Flint and Micah Maidenberg May 14, 2019 | Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp. have struck a wide-ranging deal that turns operational control of Hulu over to Disney and gives Comcast the option to sell Disney its stake in the streaming-video service. Under the deal, Comcast can require Disney to purchase the one-third stake its NBCUniversal subsidiary owns in Hulu as early...
By Alex Sherman April 25, 2019 | Comcast has had a frustrating run as a partial owner of video streaming platform Hulu, but that doesn’t make the decision to sell its minority stake in the company any easier. Disney and Comcast are holding talks about working out a deal for Comcast’s 30% stake, according to people familiar with the matter. Comcast is now weighing the...
By Rani Molla December 6, 2018 | Following Netflix’s lead, nearly every major video company is moving into the streaming media business. And that means also moving their content off Netflix and onto their own services. Disney — along with its soon-to-be purchased Fox — is launching its streaming service, Disney+, next year and pulling its content, including Pixar and Marvel films, from Netflix. The combined...
By Thomas K. Arnold December 6, 2018 | Comcast’s Xfinity Digital Store has joined digital movie-collection service Movies Anywhere, with the cable giant becoming its seventh digital retail partner — and first pay-television partner. Comcast’s Xfinity TV customers are now able to synchronize their accounts with Movies Anywhere, combine eligible movie purchases from the Xfinity Digital Store with those from other Movies Anywhere digital retailers,...
By Jennifer Saba September 27, 2018 | The Mouse House is about to buy Fox’s entertainment and international assets, including the Sky stake, for $71 billion. Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger, has allowed discretion to conquer any ideas of valor: He plans to use the $15 billion windfall from the sale to pay down debt and invest in direct-to-consumer products, including Hulu. Read...
By Cynthia Littleton August 21, 2018 | Trying to play catch-up to Netflix, the largest U.S. media conglomerates are bent on reinventing part of their operations as a direct-to-consumer business model. The industry’s biggest content producers aim to tap into the efficiency of streaming video via the internet to build proprietary pipelines into America’s living rooms, laptops, tablets and smartphones. “The modern media...
By Ben Munson June 22, 2018 | The Walt Disney Company is promising to sell off even more Fox assets if its $71 billion deal for the company’s studio and cable network businesses earns regulatory approval. In a filing with the SEC, Disney said that it would be willing to part ways with Fox assets representing up to $1 billion in total EBITDA. That’s an...
By Dade Hayes and Dawn C. Chmielewski June 20, 2018 | Disney CEO Bob Iger said changes in consumer habits are driving the company’s aggressive pursuit of 21st Century Fox studio and network assets. Facing historic levels of competition from Netflix and other digital players, traditional media powers have no choice but to act, he said in a conference call this morning with Wall Street analysts. “Direct-to-consumer distribution has actually become an even more...
By Keach Hagey and Erich Schwartzel June 20, 2018 | Walt Disney Co. raised its offer to purchase most of 21st Century Fox to more than $71.3 billion in cash and stock, topping an unsolicited offer from rival Comcast Corp. and escalating the bidding war for the coveted media properties. Disney’s new offer is far higher than its original deal, $52.4 billion in stock, and surpasses...
By Dawn C. Chmielewski and Dade Hayes June 14, 2018 | Comcast is prepared to make concessions, including shedding Fox’s stake in the online streaming service Hulu, in order to win regulatory approval for its $65 billion offer to acquire most of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets, according to sources. The U.S. cable giant, in a competing bid submitted yesterday, promised to match any of the remedies...