[ad_1]
Comcast and Disney have traded victories all summer in the fight for media content owned by Murdoch and European pay TV subscribers.
While Disney has bought the assets of 21st Century Fox for $ 71 billion, Comcast will probably bring the British broadcaster Sky for $ 39 billion. This latest victory again pits the media giants on the future of streaming.
Hulu, an American streaming service with 20 million subscribers, shares ownership in three ways: 60% Disney / Fox, 30% Comcast and 10% AT & T. Analysts are divided on what will become the participation of Comcast in Hulu.
Comcast could try to block a Disney brand platform
Comcast intends to keep Hulu, a source familiar with the matter, told Business Insider. And Comcast is banned by the British Takeover Panel from doing parallel business to swap Hulu's stake for 39% of Sky that Fox already owned.
Yet unnamed sources told CNBC Sunday that Comcast was ready to discuss a sale of Hulu to Disney. Some analysts find this sale difficult to understand.
"We have trouble understanding why Comcast would like to allow Disney to have near-total control over an entity of over 20 million consumer subscribers (DTCs) that could accelerate Disney's ambitions at the expense of live from Comcast. " BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield wrote in a note. "We believe that Comcast is very likely to remain invested in Hulu and prevent it from becoming a Disney-branded DTC platform."
Disney has already started working on its own OTT service, nicknamed Disneyflix by the industry, which hopes to become a competitor of the streaming giant Netflix. Disneyflix should be launched at the end of the year 2019 and include newly acquired content from Fox, as well as Disney classics. And ESPN +, Disney's consumer streaming service for consumers, has increased its subscribers since its launch in April.
Disney could broadcast all of its content in a single broadcast platform: Hulu. But enriching the content of Hulu also means that its competitors – Comcast and AT & T – benefit, a result that is surely not ideal for Disney.
If Comcast chooses to remain a minority shareholder in Hulu, it forces Disney to pursue its two-way solution with Hulu and Disneyflix as separate entities, according to Greenfield. "With only 30% of Hulu's shares, Comcast can frustrate Disney and continue to benefit from the purchase of Comcast / NBC content by Hulu and live NBC channel licenses (revenue increase), while.
Comcast could sell Hulu to avoid competing with Now TV
But a Hulu platform, majority owned by Disney, would also be in direct competition with the new acquisition of Comcast, Now TV, Sky's OTT platform, leading some analysts to predict that Comcast would sell its stake in Hulu.
"Comcast could divest itself of its stake in Hulu because it will now have its own Now TV platform and will probably have no interest in transmitting its content to a direct competitor on both sides of its business," notes an analyst from Cowen.
In the United States, Comcast has used other OTT streaming platforms, but has not yet achieved success. Last year, NBC closed its Seeso comedy streaming service and could not launch the Watchable app.
Comcast could focus on a global Netflix challenger, developing Now TV, which already has a solid content portfolio with exclusive rights to broadcast HBO shows such as "Game of Thrones" and "Westworld" in Europe. He also has the majority of Premier League TV rights and exclusive rights to the German Bundesliga.
Anyway, Comcast and Disney always find themselves unhappy
According to Alex DeGroote, an independent media analyst, the decision will ultimately be limited to finance. And Comcast's 30% stake in Hulu will reach $ 3 billion.
"Hulu is in deficit and Comcast can not compete with Netflix in terms of programming budget in the US streaming market," said DeGroote in an email to Business Insider. "Comcast has placed its chips on Sky and the European expansion and can not develop / fund realistically Hulu, which is relatively immature".
Although Hulu does not report financial data, some estimates place annual losses at around $ 1.5 billion. And while Hulu has 20 million subscribers in the United States, the comparison with more than 130 million Netflix subscribers around the world is still small.
DeGroote has stated that he expects Disney to acquire Comcast's stake in Hulu, "but neither Disney nor Comcast are entirely satisfied with the result."
"Comcast wants Hulu but can not have it, Disney wants Sky, but can not have it," he said.
Source link
