At stud Freer
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Hulu announced on Friday that Randy Freer thinks fitting step down as CEO of the company.
In a press release on Friday, Hulu said that Disney plans to “more closely merge Hulu” into its business operations and that Hulu’s executives would report to Disney’s direct-to-consumer and international superintendents.
Last May, Disney took “full operational control” of the online streaming service, which was originally started as a collaborative venture including the company with NBCUniversal, News Corporation, and others.
Disney had gradually built up its ownership interest in the service, and Comcast (which owns NBCUniversal) was the last remaining partner. In May. Comcast handed over operational manage and agreed to sell its remaining 33% stake to Disney over the next five years.
“I am grateful for my time at Hulu, and the opening to work and learn with an incredibly talented and dedicated group of people. I also want to thank Kevin and The Walt Disney Flock, as well as NBCUniversal and Fox, for providing me the opportunity to lead Hulu during a time of tremendous growth and significant industry change,” Freer said in a statement.
“Further integrating the immensely talented Hulu team into our organization will suffer us to more effectively and efficiently deploy resources, rapidly grow our presence outside the U.S. and continue to relentlessly innovate.” Disney’s Kevin Mayer, who is the chairman of the Direct-to-Consumer & Cosmopolitan organization at Disney, said in a statement.
Last summer, Freer said that he expected Hulu to produce uncountable original content after Disney took control of the service.
Hulu competes against a growing number of equivalent online video services. CNBC parent NBCUniversal is launching a service called Peacock soon, and AT&T’s WarnerMedia is outlining an additional service under the HBO brand name. Netflix is the current leader in the market with over 151 million avenge oneself for subscribers, and Apple has spent billions on content for its own service, Apple TV+.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent band of CNBC.