Hulu + Live TV and Fubo have officially declared "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
Today, Walt Disney Co. announced that it would be merging its Hulu + Live TV service with Fubo, another of the best cable alternatives out there. While billed as a merger, it seems that Disney has decided to acquire one of its competitors, as the new company formed by this merger will be 70% owned by the House of Mouse.
• Hulu + Live TV and Fubo combine into one company
• Hulu + Live TV and Fubo will continue offering separate live TV packages
• Hulu streaming service not part of deal
• Deal expected to take 12-18 months to complete
• Fubo will drop its Venu lawsuit
Nothing is official yet, and it'll reportedly be 12-18 months before this deal is completed, but here's how sources say this new merger will shake out. Hulu + Live TV and Fubo will combine into one publicly traded company — Fubo. While Disney will own the majority of the company and its board, Fubo management, including co-founder and CEO David Gandler, will run the new company.
There are a couple of important caveats to note here. First, while operations are merging, Hulu + Live TV and Fubo will continue to be offered as separate services. Only Hulu + Live TV will include the Disney Bundle (Hulu streaming, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus) as part of your subscription, though this move is expected to lead to Fubo eventually offering a less expensive bundle built around ESPN and ABC. And, importantly, Hulu's streaming service isn't part of this new venture. Only the live TV operations are merging with Fubo.
Practically, this means for many of you reading this, nothing is changing now and ultimately, not much may change for you as a result of this merger. Hulu + Live TV customers will still have Hulu + Live TV and Fubo customers will still have Fubo. But there is one major way this could impact what streaming services you pay for every month because this merger means that Venu is now alive and well.
Hulu + Live TV/Fubo merger ends Venu lawsuit
If you're going "What the heck is Venu?" that's OK. Venu is an upcoming live sports streaming service that will combine sports offerings from Disney (ABC, ESPN, etc.), Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT, TBS, etc.) and Fox (Fox, FS1, etc.) into a single streaming service. It caused some buzz when it was first announced — including some healthy skepticism from yours truly — but seemed shaky after a lawsuit was filed by none other than ... Fubo.
Now though, that lawsuit is dead as part of the terms of the merger between Hulu + Live TV and Fubo. It's fully expected that Venu's rollout will resume as a result, though Disney is now separately working on a standalone offering of ESPN (yes, a different offering from ESPN Plus).
Ultimately, all these moves are centered around taking down YouTube TV, which has more subscribers than Hulu + Live TV and Fubo combined. Whether or not that happens is still very much to be determined, but with YouTube TV's recent price hike, there's never been a better time for its competition to strike. Hopefully, the end result is better value for cord-cutters, though I won't be holding my breath.
More from Tom's Guide
