One of the more anticipated media business deals will happen sooner than we thought.
Comcast and The Walt Disney Co. have agreed to push up the start date to formally decide the fate of Hulu from January to the end of this month.
Comcast chairman and CEO CEO Brian Roberts said his company will be basing the sale of its 33% stake in the Hulu joint venture on a valuation of the streaming service well north of $30 billion.
Also Read: Roberts: Comcast ‘Likely’ to Sell Its Stake in Hulu to Disney
“We are excited to get this resolved,” Roberts said during the Goldman Sachs Communcacopia + Technology Conference Wednesday. “And the minimum $27.5 billion that people have bandied about, that was a hypothetical that we picked five years ago because Disney has control of the company. The company is way more valuable today than it was then.”
Amid its purchase of Fox's entertainment assets in 2019, Disney became Hulu's majority and controlling shareholder. At that time, it also signed an agreement for Comcast to sell its remaining 33% stake in the JV at a minimum valuation of $27.5 billion.
Hulu finished 2019 with just over 23 million subscribers. As of the end of June, the platform touted over 48 million paid users.
Disney and Comcast have been negotiating an outcome for years. But now the formal timeline to arrive at a decision is set to start on September 30.
“The next steps are an appraisal process for valuation with Comcast indicating it will have its own valuation, as will Disney and a third party,” Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall wrote. “No timing was given for a consummation of the process,” he added, “but we think investors will assume a deal by approximately year-end 2023.”
