Comcast May Pull Content From Hulu For Peacock Next Year, But Hulu Has Big Plans
NBCUniversal, a Comcast company, is weighing investing in their own platform, Peacock, against maintaining their position in Hulu. Disney and Comcast are co-owners of Hulu, but Disney takes the lion’s share, around 66%. Many of NBCUniversal’s most valuable properties such as “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “The Voice” and “Saturday Night Live” currently live on Hulu to great success. NBCUniversal is attempting to project to what extent bringing their content exclusively or primarily to Peacock would boost their own platform which is losing $8 a month on every user, and their churn rate is the highest in the industry.
The Wall Street Journal reports that NBCUniversal has two major alternatives. They can pull out of Hulu early next year which could potentially dramatically harm the value of their underlying shares in the company and would mean consumers would only be able to access a majority of NBCUniversal’s content by the Fall on Peacock. Comcast removed its releases from HBO Max in a similar manner. Their other option is to end the agreement and remove their content in 2024.
A secondary negotiation centers around moving the streaming window of NBCUniversal’s new releases further into the future for Hulu. Currently shows arrive on Hulu only a day after they air on NBC, but Comcast is pushing for that window to be pushed closer to a month or more after they air.
CEO of Disney Bob Chapek has plans of his own that could nullify the impact of losing NBCUniversal’s footprint on the platform. Chapek, who reportedly has marked interest in increasing the company’s adult content offerings beyond their family-friendly tradition, also has plans to ratchet up Hulu’s spending on original content from around $2 billion annually to around $7 billion, Puck reports.
If Comcast waits until 2024 to withdraw from Hulu, Chapek’s spending on originals could soften the blow to the overall evaluation of the company and leave Comcast with a more favorable position in the case that Disney buys out their shares. But waiting puts Peacock in a perilous position. Comcast’s streaming service desperately needs originals, exclusives and a deeper library to draw in consumers.
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