Disney To Kickstart Own Streaming Service Using Hulu
With Disney set to consummate a $60 billion deal for key pieces of 21st Century Fox, industry insiders are already speculating on what the media giant will do with its newly acquired assets. There are already reports that the company will use Fox's stake in Hulu to kickstart its own streaming service that will rival market leaders Netflix and Amazon.
Disney already stated their intention of creating a streaming service and ending their deal with Netflix. The company already pulled its content from the site including the highly lucrative Star Wars and Marvel franchises. However, despite revealing their intentions, there has been little information with regards to what form the service will take.
It was only after the impending deal with Fox made headlines that the question seemingly had an answer. According to Variety, any deal to buy Fox would likely include Fox's 30% stake in Hulu increasing Disney's total stake to 60%. The report states that this could "first step" toward turning Hulu into the foundation for Disney's streaming service.
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While this is just speculation at this point, the pieces do fit together. Disney already has a large stake in Hulu and acquiring Fox's stake gives it massive controlling power over the company. So far, there has been no confirmation from the side of either company regarding the inclusion of Fox's stake in the deal, but it is still pretty much in air at this point.
It would make sense for Disney to utilize an existing service to lay the groundwork rather than build its streaming service from scratch. The media giant has already demonstrated its ability to utilize every asset it acquires as in the case of Lucasfilm and Marvel.
But while all of this is good for Disney, it won't amount to anything unless both companies reach an agreement. Fans are already anticipating a new wave of content especially with Fox's rights to a number of Marvel franchises. Who knows, this could be the first step to Chris Evans' dream of a Captain America/Human Torch Parent Trap mashup.
