Will Hulu Be the Next Problem for Disney?

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) finally cracked the code, breathing new life into its Disney+ streaming service. This week's blowout quarter came with a monster beat in Disney+ subscriber additions, something that had been a sticking point on Wall Street in a few of the company's previous financial updates. Now that its flagship streaming service is back on track, is an older and surprisingly larger part of Disney's streaming portfolio about to hit a speed bump?

The Wall Street Journal reports that NBCUniversal parent Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is working on a plan that would take back the high-profile content that it makes immediately available on Disney's majority-owned Hulu. One of the things that sets Hulu apart from most premium streaming services is that it offers third-party content the day after new episodes air. The revised deal wouldn't pull all of the Comcast-owned content from the platform, but it will mean that new episodes of high-profile NBC shows including Saturday Night Live and The Voice will no longer stream on Hulu in the fall.

The move may not seem like such a big deal at first. We've seen Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) survive the end of its access to The Office and Friends. However, since Hulu has a relatively thin slate of original programming, the inability to access some of its more popular third-party content could be problematic.

Source Fool.com