Who Owns Hulu? Disney Owns 100% (2026)

How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q, prospectus and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number; outside estimates appear only labelled, with their source and date. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.

Who owns Hulu today?

Disney’s fiscal 2025 Form 10-K reports an $8.6 billion payment in fiscal 2024 for Hulu’s redeemable noncontrolling interest (NBCUniversal’s stake) and an additional $0.4 billion paid in fiscal 2025 ‘based on the final appraisal of Hulu’s fair value’. It also reports that in October 2025 Disney combined certain Hulu Live TV assets with Fubo, acquiring a 70% interest in Fubo. Disney’s 2026 proxy statement lists Vanguard (8.5%) and BlackRock (6.9%) as its holders above 5%. See who owns Marvel.

Owning all of Hulu let Disney fold it into Disney+ as one streaming product. The Fubo deal moved Hulu’s live-TV bundle into a separate company Disney controls, keeping the core Hulu streaming service inside Disney.

In a $71 billion deal, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox and doubled its stake in Hulu, bringing it from 30% to 67%, thus giving The Walt Disney Company complete control over Hulu. This move enabled Disney to further strengthen its position in the streaming industry and take over Netflix. Therefore, Hulu is part of the Walt Disney Company media empire.

Additional Ownership Details

• Corporate Structure and Ownership: Hulu is a majority owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, which has 100% ownership of Hulu following an appraisal process completed in fiscal 2025.Comcast’s NBCUniversalno longer holds a stake; in December 2023 Disney paid NBCU $8.6 billion, which reflected the guaranteed floor value less NBCU’s unpaid capital call contributions. Disney gained majority control of Hulu in March 2019 following its acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Disney also entered into an agreement with Comcast, which allows Disney to take full operational control of Hulu. In fiscal 2025, following the completion of an appraisal process, Disney paid NBCU an incremental $0.4 billion, giving it 100% ownership of Hulu.
• History and Evolution: Hulu was founded in 2007 as a joint venture between NBCUniversal, Fox Entertainment Group, Disney-ABC Television Group, and Providence Equity Partners. The service launched publicly in 2008, providing on-demand access to TV shows and movies. Hulu quickly became known for its extensive library of current and past TV series from major networks. Over the years, Hulu expanded its offerings to include original content and live TV services, evolving into a comprehensive streaming platform. The acquisition by Disney has further strengthened Hulu’s content library and market position.
• Business Model and Revenue Streams: Hulu operates a subscription-based business model with various pricing tiers:
  • Hulu (ad-supported): Offers access to Hulu’s streaming library with limited commercials.
  • Hulu (no ads): Provides ad-free access to the streaming library.
  • Hulu + Live TV: Includes live and on-demand TV channels in addition to the streaming library.
  Revenue is generated through subscription fees and advertising. The ad-supported tier allows Hulu to monetize through ad sales, offering advertisers targeted ad placements. Hulu also generates revenue through partnerships and content licensing deals.
• Product Offerings and Services: Hulu offers a wide range of streaming services, including:
  • On-Demand Content: A vast library of TV shows, movies, documentaries, and Hulu Originals.
  • Hulu Originals: Exclusive content produced by Hulu, such as “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Castle Rock,” and “The Great.”
  • Live TV: Access to live broadcasts of major networks and cable channels, including news, sports, and entertainment.
  • Add-Ons: Additional content packages, such as HBO Max, Showtime, and Cinemax, available for an extra fee.
  Hulu’s user-friendly interface and personalized recommendations enhance the viewing experience, making it easy for subscribers to discover new content.
• Integration with Disney’s Ecosystem: As part of Disney, Hulu benefits from access to Disney’s extensive content library and production capabilities. Disney leverages its brands, including Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and National Geographic, to enrich Hulu’s content offerings. Hulu is integrated into Disney’s broader streaming strategy, complementing Disney+ and ESPN+. This integration allows for bundled subscription packages, providing added value to consumers and driving subscriber growth. Disney’s marketing and distribution networks also support Hulu’s expansion and visibility in the competitive streaming market.

Aspect · Description · Analysis · Examples

More about the Hulu business model

In a $71 billion deal, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox and doubled its stake in Hulu, bringing it from 30% to 67%, thus giving The Walt Disney Company complete control over Hulu.

Hulu is a subscription-based streaming platform, aggregating original TV, entertainment, and series content formats, and it distributes it across its platform.

Hulu also offers linear broadcasting and cable channels, with 64.1 million total Hulu paid subscribers at September 27, 2025, according to Disney.

Hulu licenses the content through several agreements with television studios and makes it mostly available on its subscription-based platform.

Hulu is a streaming platform that serves users in the United States with a library of content from networks such as ABC, NBC, FX, and CBS.

The company was founded as a joint venture between News Corporation, NBC Universal, and Providence Equity Partners in 2006.

Hulu launched as a private beta service on October 29, 2007, inviting users to provide their email addresses to a website with no content.

Access to the general public was offered in 2008.

Although the platform was officially launched one year after Netflix, Hulu’s point of differentiation was that it offered free next-day streaming of popular TV network programs while also selling access to a catalog of films and television series.

According to Disney’s fiscal 2025 fourth-quarter earnings report,Hulu had 64.1 million total paid subscribers at September 27, 2025.

Hulu ownership structure

Since its founding, Hulu has undergone several changes in ownership.

The first significant change in ownership occurred when The Walt Disney Company took an equity stake via subsidiary ABC Enterprises Inc. in 2009.

Providence Equity Partners sold its initial 10% stake back to the company for $200 million in 2012.

Time Warner then acquired a 10% stake four years later, with owner AT&T then selling 9.5% back to Hulu in 2019 to concentrate on its competing service HBO Max.

During the intervening years, News Corporation’s stake was transferred to 21st Century Fox as the former company split its publishing and television/film holdings.

In March of 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, giving the company a 60% majority stake in Hulu.

Two months later, the only other major shareholder Comcast agreed with Disney to sell its 33% stake as early as 2024.

The deal terms stipulate that the price of the acquisition will reflect a minimum total equity value of $27.5 billion, which means Comcast can expect around a third of this amount.

Despite the deal not coming into effect for several years, Disney took full ownership of Hulu effective immediately.

To that end, Comcast became a silent partner, and Hulu became a Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International (DCTI) division.

Disney CEO Bob Iger noted that Disney’s integration of Hulu would enable increased investment toward producing original content and make the platform “even more compelling and a greater value for consumers.”

Origin Story

Hulu is a subscription-based streaming service that offers its users a vast selection of movies, TV shows, and original content.

It was launched in 2008 as a joint venture between several media companies and has since grown into a major player in the streaming market.

Hulu had 64.1 million total paid subscribers at September 27, 2025, according to Disney, and is currently majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company. 

Early years

Hulu was founded in 2007 as a joint venture between News Corporation and NBC Universal.

Those companies were later joined by Providence Equity Partners (who invested $100 million) and The Walt Disney Company. 

Some of the key personnel involved in the process included Peter Chemin, JB Perrette, Bruce Campbell, Mike Lang, Beth Comstock, Darren Feher, Jason Kilar, and George Kliavkoff. Kilar was named Hulu CEO later that year. 

The idea for Hulu came about as a way for these companies to compete with the rising popularity of YouTube and video piracy on other online video platforms.

But perhaps more importantly, Hulu was conceived to streamline broadcast distribution, bypass gate-keepers such as YouTube and iTunes, and control the advertising ecosystem.

NBC CEO Jeff Zucker was particularly hostile toward iTunes because its business model had turned media revenue:

“from dollars into pennies” and that “Apple — as explored in the interface layer wars reshaping consumer tech — sold millions of dollars’ worth of hardware off the back of our content, and made a lot of money. They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing.”

Official launch and Disney stake

Hulu was made available to the public on March 12, 2008, with a somewhat limited selection of content from the founding networks.

Launched about twelve months after Netflix, Hulu differentiated itself with the next-day streaming of network programs.

Hulu did not offer any live TV channels at the time. Instead, it focused on providing on-demand access to popular TV shows such as The Office and The Simpsons. The service was free to view but supported by ads that appeared before and during the content. 

Despite the incorporation of ads, however, Hulu only showed them for 2 minutes out of 30 – a substantial improvement on the 6 minutes’ worth of ads shown on traditional TV networks.

In 2009, Disney announced that it had taken an equity stake in Hulu for an undisclosed amount. As part of the deal, some of its television content and feature films would be made available on the Hulu platform.

Over the first year, the number of shows and films on the platform increased from just a few dozen to more than a thousand.

Hulu Plus and content production

The Hulu Plus subscription service was launched in 2010 which enabled consumers to access the full series of some of their favorite titles.

Consumers could also receive undelayed access to new content.

Hulu became one of the first such platforms to produce its own content in 2011 with the release of A Day in the Life. In fact, the documentary series premiered two years before the first Netflix production House of Cards in 2013.

In September of that year, Hulu passed 1 million subscribers.

Hulu goes commercial free

After Hulu started to invest more in original content, it moved away from free broadcast television toward a premium subscription model — as explored in the shift from SaaS to agentic service models — used by cable TV providers and competitors such as Netflix and Amazon. 

The first commercial-free plan was launched in September 2015, and the platform hit 12 million subscribers in 2016. The following year, Live TV was launched. This made Hulu the only streaming service to offer both live channels and an on-demand content library.

Disney assumed full operational control of Hulu when it acquired 21st Century Fox in addition to the $1.43 billion purchase of AT&T’s 10% stake in 2019.

Disney vs. Netflix

By 2022, Hulu represented a key asset within Walt Disney’s galaxy of streaming brands to compete successfully against Netflix.

The aggressive acquisition campaign of The Walt Disney Company, to keep up first, then successfully dominate the streaming industry, resulting in a massively reduced profitability for the company.

Thus, the streaming war has proved to be quite expensive for Disney, which will try to bring its profitability structure back on track in the coming years as its streaming operations become mature enough and Disney figures out a bundling strategy to take over Netflix’s offering.

Key takeaways:

• Hulu is a subscription-based streaming service that offers a vast selection of movies, TV shows, and original content to its users. It was launched in 2008 as a joint venture between several media companies and has since grown into a major player in the streaming market.
• Hulu was made available to the public on March 12, 2008, with a somewhat limited selection of content from the founder networks. Launched about twelve months after Netflix, Hulu differentiated itself with the next-day streaming of network programs.
• After Hulu started to invest more in original content, it moved away from free broadcast television toward a premium subscription model used by cable TV providers and competitors such as Netflix and Amazon. 
• Hulu is a streaming platform that servers users in the United States with a library of content from networks such as ABC, NBC, FX, and CBS. The company was founded as a joint venture between News Corporation, NBC Universal, and Providence Equity Partners in 2007.
• Hulu has undergone several changes in ownership over the years, with Providence Equity Partners, Time Warner, Comcast, and AT&T involved with the company at various times. 
• Disney became the majority shareholder in 2019 when it acquired 21^st Century Fox in 2019. In November 2023, the other shareholder, Comcast’s NBC Universal (NBCU), exercised its right to require Disney to purchase NBCU’s 33% interest in Hulu.

Key Highlights

• Ownership Structure: Hulu was initially founded as a joint venture between News Corporation, NBC Universal, and Providence Equity Partners in 2007. Over the years, ownership has changed hands, with The Walt Disney Company gradually increasing its stake. In fiscal 2025, following the completion of an appraisal process, Disney gained 100% ownership of Hulu.
• Subscription-Based Streaming Platform: Hulu is a subscription-based streaming service that offers a wide selection of movies, TV shows, and original content to its subscribers. It differentiates itself by providing next-day streaming of popular TV network programs.
• Subscriber Growth: Hulu has experienced significant subscriber growth over the years. It had 64.1 million total paid subscribers at September 27, 2025, compared with 55.5 million at June 28, 2025, according to Disney.
• Licensing Content: Hulu licenses content through agreements with television studios, making it available on its subscription-based platform. The library includes content from networks such as ABC, NBC, FX, and CBS.
• Origin Story: Hulu was officially launched on March 12, 2008, as a joint venture between major media companies. It was founded to compete with rising online video platforms like YouTube and to streamline broadcast distribution.
• Evolution of Hulu: Over the years, Hulu evolved from a free, ad-supported service to a premium subscription model. It launched Hulu Plus, offering access to full series and new content. In 2015, it introduced a commercial-free plan and later added live TV channels.
• Disney’s Control: Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019 allowed it to take a 60% majority stake in Hulu. In November 2023, Comcast’s NBC Universal (NBCU) exercised its right to require Disney to purchase NBCU’s 33% interest in Hulu. Disney assumed full operational control of Hulu immediately.
• Competition with Netflix: Disney’s aggressive acquisition strategy aimed to compete with Netflix, and by 2022, The Walt Disney Company’s total paid subscriber base exceeded Netflix’s. However, Disney’s offering is fragmented among Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu, while Netflix has a single offering.
• Profitability and Future Strategy: The streaming war has impacted Disney’s profitability, but the company is focused on maturing its streaming operations and exploring bundling strategies to strengthen its position in the market. Disney reported revenues of $94.4 billion for fiscal 2025 but aims to optimize profitability in the coming years.

More about the Disney media empire

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