Thanks for the correction. It seems this became the case with the acquisition of Fox, since Hulu was apparently 1/3 owned by Disney, 1/3 Fox, 1/3 Comcast. With Disney outbidding Comcast for Fox, they became 2/3 owners and Comcast decided that it made sense to exit.
I think the ultimate reality still stands, just s/Hulu/TBD Streaming/g. Comcast will roll their own competitor at some point. Rent-by-mail is one thing, but when it's just moving bits around, it doesn't make sense to outsource to a licensee like Netflix anymore.
Unless Netflix can figure out how to lobby and legislate with the same supreme competence they apply to systems engineering, their long-term prospects as an independent entity are bleak. The copyright regime will be their downfall.
Comcast has multiple competitors already out in the wild.
First they have XFinity Flex. Their competitor to Roku.
Then they have Peacock, which at the moment looks like a competitor to CBS All Access. Coming soon.
Somewhere in between a channel and a platform you have Live TV broadcast. Who knows how they will brand it in the long run (they will want you to pay for their variant of "cable service / satellite".) ATM they have the Xfinity Stream Beta App on Roku.
They also have the NBC Family of streaming apps: bravo, e!, nbc, oxygen, syfy, telemundo, universo, usa. They would absolutely benefit from a single "guide" interface like ATT TV Now/ / PlutoTV.
I think the ultimate reality still stands, just s/Hulu/TBD Streaming/g. Comcast will roll their own competitor at some point. Rent-by-mail is one thing, but when it's just moving bits around, it doesn't make sense to outsource to a licensee like Netflix anymore.
Unless Netflix can figure out how to lobby and legislate with the same supreme competence they apply to systems engineering, their long-term prospects as an independent entity are bleak. The copyright regime will be their downfall.