Early this year, reports surfaced that Time Warner Inc. was not only looking to acquire a 25 percent stake in Hulu, but also had plans to push for major changes to the streaming service’s format. Now the company has indeed managed to buy a piece of Hulu, but not as much as it had originally planned — and that could be a good thing for customers.
Time Warner Inc. has purchased a 10 percent stake in Hulu, the two companies announced in a press release on Wednesday. The company paid $583 million in the deal, which will see it joining The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, and Comcast, each of which owns a 30 percent stake in the streaming service.
As part of the deal, Time Warner Inc. will also join part of Hulu’s planned live internet TV service, which is slated to arrive sometime in 2017. The deal will see Time Warner Inc. networks including TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, Boomerang, and Turner Classic Movies coming to Hulu’s new live TV venture, which is set to compete with the likes of Sling TV, Playstation Vue, and others.
“This investment from Time Warner marks a major step for Hulu as we continue to redefine television for both consumers and advertisers,”
That’s a plus for customers who want to subscribe to Hulu’s live service, rumored to cost around $4o per month. But for
Time Warner Inc. apparently isn’t a fan of that; not only will the company avoid offering current seasons of its own shows on Hulu — only past ones — but part of its interest in acquiring a stake in the company was reportedly to eventually shift the service away from airing current seasons of TV shows, period.
Of course, things have changed since February when those reports about Time Warner’s plans first broke — Hulu hadn’t yet announced its plans for a live TV service, for example, and Time Warner also didn’t acquire as much of the company as it had reportedly hoped. Still,
As always, we’ll be following these events as they unfold so stay tuned and check back with us as Time Warner Inc. makes its move.
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