Disney is not only the proud new owner of 21st Century Fox, it’s also now the controlling owner of Hulu. And Mickey Mouse’s management is pleased with its 60 percent share in the Netflix competitor.
“Managing Hulu becomes a little bit more clear… with a controlling shareholder rather than with equal partners,” Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said Thursday morning on a conference call.
That doesn’t mean his company is going to turn Hulu into Disney’s standalone streaming service, however.
“We believe that it’s possible that a consumer may want to basically be choosy in terms of what product they want,” Iger explained. “Some may want pure family, some may want pure sports, some may want adult. Some may want all of it, by the way, and certainly we’ll make that available.”
“I don’t think you should really look at [them] as necessarily individual businesses, except that we’re looking to expand consumer choice and consumer options,” he continued, when asked by a media analyst why Walt Disney isn’t just adopting Hulu as its own — and sole — SVOD platform.
“And, we’ll see,” Iger added. “If there are opportunities– obviously there will be an opportunity for a consumer to buy them in their entirety.”
Disney’s plan to launch its own direct-to-consumer streaming service sounds like its still on pace for 2019.