What Will Comcast Do Now That the Hulu Sale is Nearing Completion?
Audiences should expect a big bid from NBCUniversal when the NBA’s rights come up for sale, but what are some other ways it could spend its new cash?
Comcast is about to become several billion dollars richer. The company has agreed on a final sale process with Disney for the 33% of Hulu that Comcast owns which will net the TV and broadband provider at least $8.6 billion, with a possibility remaining that the deal could be worth more in the end.
- NBCUniversal is expected to be a major player for a package of NBA games in the next round of broadcasting contract negotiations for that league.
- Reports from this summer indicate Comcast CEO Brian Roberts may have interest in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery.
- The cash could also be infused into Peacock to help Comcast push the service toward profitability.
Is the NBA Comcast’s Top Target?
With all that cash soon to be burning a hole in Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’ pockets, it’s worth taking a guess at what Comcast will eventually try to do with its newfound largesse. The most obvious target currently is the NBA. Rumors first began to swirl that Comcast subsidiary NBCUniversal had an interest in acquiring a package of NBA games in February; that chatter has only intensified since, and NBCU is now seen as one of the top contenders to land at least one bundle of NBA contests. The league’s broadcast rights go up for sale following the 2024-25 season.
NBCU would make a logical partner for the NBA, which reportedly wants as much as $75 billion from its next broadcasting agreement. ESPN and TNT apparently want fewer games in the next round of negotiations, creating a third package that NBC would gobble up greedily. The league also wants to increase its streaming presence, but NBC has a ready-made streaming partner in Peacock that could easily simulcast NBA games accompanied by the old “Roundball Rock” theme song.
Fans should expect Comcast to be aggressive in its pursuit of the NBA in the next couple of years, particularly as it has new revenue to count on from the Disney-Hulu sale.
What Other Options Could Comcast Pursue with its Money?
The streaming marketplace is about to enter a period of aggregation. Streaming platforms will be merged with each other to reduce friction for customers and give them more content in fewer places, and Disney’s completion of its purchase of Hulu will likely cause the next domino to fall in this regard; Disney+ and Hulu are expected to merge into a single-app experience before the end of 2023.
Could Comcast use its Hulu money to aggregate with other streamers? Reports from the summer indicate that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav may have floated a sale of his company to Comcast. This would surely come with some big regulatory roadblocks, but if those were overcome all the content from Peacock and Max could come together on a single service, including Turner Sports programming.
The Lionsgate movie studio would be a logical target for Comcast as well. Lionsgate has filed paperwork to separate the movie studio segment of its business from the Starz cable/streaming bundle by the first quarter of 2024. Lionsgate recently purchased the rights to big-name franchises like Transformers and Monopoly from Hasbro; owning those rights would give NBCU the ability to use these properties for making new kids’ movies from DreamWorks, or even have them cross over with other IP like the Super Mario Bros.
The less immediately exciting answer to what Comcast will do with its money is to reinvest it in Peacock. The streamer recently announced it had accrued 28 million subscribers, and still targets 2023 as the year when it will hit peak losses so it can begin the climb to profitability. Comcast could simply decide its Hulu money is best spent trying to raise the profile of its own streamer through new original content or similar investments.
Comcast has plenty of choices to make with the $8.6 billion+ it has coming to it from Disney. It could decide to make a splashy acquisition like purchasing Warner Bros. Discovery, or it could do something more tame like putting the money back into Peacock. Considering the state of the media industry, Comcast’s decision could prove critical for its long-term survival.
Peacock
Peacock is a subscription video streaming service from NBCUniversal that includes original shows, blockbuster movies, and classic television series. Peacock is home to “Yellowstone,” and “The Office,” as well as original hits like “Poker Face” and “Bel-Air.” You can also watch live sports including NFL, MLB, WWE, Olympics, Premier League, NASCAR, French Open, College Football and Basketball, and PGA Tour. Premium Plus subscribers can stream their local NBC feed in all 210 markets.