Hulu With Live TV

Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series like 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Disney Television Studios, ABC, Freeform, and FX Networks among others, as well as Hulu original programming.

Hulu was initially established as a joint venture between News Corporation and NBC Universal, Providence Equity Partners, and later The Walt Disney Company, serving as an aggregation of recent episodes of television series from their respective television networks. In 2010, Hulu launched a subscription service, initially branded as "Hulu Plus", which featured full seasons of programs from the companies and other partners, and undelayed access to new episodes. In 2017, the company launched ''Hulu with Live TV''—an over-the-top live TV service featuring linear television channels.

, Hulu has a total of 47.2 million subscribers.

Etymology

The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese characters, ''húlu'' ( 葫芦/ 葫蘆), "calabash; bottle gourd", and ''hùlù'' ( 互录/ 互錄), "interactive recording".

Jason Kilar, who served as CEO of Hulu, said the name comes from a Chinese proverb:

History

Early years

Individuals who were instrumental in the founding of Hulu include Bruce Campbell, Peter Chernin, JB Perrette, Mike Lang, Beth Comstock, George Kliavkoff, Darren Feher, and Jason Kilar. Hulu was announced in March 2007 with AOL, NBC Universal (then co-owned by General Electric and Vivendi), MSN, Myspace, and Yahoo! planned as "initial distribution partners". Jason Kilar was named Hulu CEO in late 2007.

The name ''Hulu'' was chosen in late August 2007, when the website went live with an announcement only and no content. It invited users to leave their email addresses for the upcoming beta test. In October 2007, Hulu began the private beta testing by invitation, and later allowed users to invite friends. Hulu launched for public access in the United States on March 12, 2008. The first product to launch was the HULU Syndication network, which was designed and developed by the NBC Universal team from New York, on October 29, 2007, led by Tom Sharma, followed by the Hulu.com destinations site.

Hulu began an advertising campaign during NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII with an initial ad starring Alec Baldwin titled "Alec in Huluwood". Advertisements have since aired featuring Eliza Dushku, Seth MacFarlane, Denis Leary, and Will Arnett.

In July 2007, Providence Equity Partners, the owner of Newport Television, became one of the earliest "outside" investors by purchasing a 10 percent stake in the company for US$100 million equity investment, before the company was known as "Hulu". With its investment came a seat on the board of directors, where Providence was said to act as an "independent voice on the board". In April 2009, The Walt Disney Company joined the Hulu consortium as a stakeholder, with plans to offer content from ABC, ESPN and Disney Channel.

Early in 2010, Hulu chief executive Jason Kilar said the service had made a profit in two quarters and that the company could top $100 million in revenue by summer 2010, more than its income for all of 2009. ComScore says monthly video streams reached 903 million in January 2010, over three times the figure for a year earlier, and second only to YouTube.

On August 16, 2010, a report revealed that Hulu was planning an initial public offering (IPO) which could value the company at more than $2 billion.

On June 21, 2011, ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported that an "unsolicited offer" caused Hulu to begin "weighing whether to sell itself". However, on October 13, 2011, Hulu and its owners announced that they would not sell the company, as none of the bidders offered an amount that was satisfactory to its owners. In September of that year, the service launched in Japan; marking Hulu's first international expansion.

Hulu generated $420 million in revenue in 2011, $80 million short of the company's target. The vacant CEO post was officially filled by former Fox Networks President Mike Hopkins on October 17, 2013.

In October 2012, Providence sold its 10 percent stake to "Hulu's media owners" and ceased participation in the board.

On February 27, 2014, Nippon Television Network Corporation acquired Hulu's Japanese business. The service would retain the "Hulu" brand and technology in Japan under a subsidiary of Nippon as part of a separate agreement.

On August 3, 2016, Time Warner acquired 10 percent stake of Hulu. On April 15, 2019, AT&T (via WarnerMedia) sold its 9.5% stake in Hulu back to the company for $1.43 billion, in order to shift its focus to its own service, HBO Max.

Hopkins exited and was named Sony Pictures TV Chairman. Fox Networks Group COO Randy Freer was named CEO on October 24, 2017.

Disney majority ownership

In March 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, giving it a 60% majority stake in Hulu. AT&T (which acquired Time Warner in 2018) sold back its roughly 10% stake the following month leaving Disney with 67% and Comcast with 33%. Comcast, the only other shareholder, announced on May 14, 2019, that it had agreed to cede its control to Disney, and reached an agreement for Disney to purchase its 33% stake in the company as early as 2024.

On May 14, 2019, Comcast relinquished its control in Hulu to Disney effective immediately. As a result, the streaming service became a division of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International (DTCI) with Comcast effectively becoming a silent partner. Under the agreement, Comcast's 33% stake can be sold to Disney at fair market value as early as 2024. The fair market value will be determined at that time, but Disney guaranteed a minimum valuation of the entire company at $27.5 billion (valuing the Comcast stake as worth at least $9.075 billion). Randy Freer would report to Disney executive Kevin Mayer.

In the wake of the deal, Disney CEO Bob Iger explained that direct integration of Hulu with Disney's studios would allow increased investments in original content, which would in turn allow it to "make the service even more compelling and a greater value for consumers". Disney stated that its control of Hulu was the third major component of its direct-to-consumer strategy, complementing its sports streaming service ESPN+, and its then-forthcoming Disney+. Hulu would be oriented towards "general" entertainment and content targeting mature audiences. NBCUniversal will continue to license its content to the service through at least 2024, but it will have the option to begin transitioning its exclusivity deals with Hulu to non-exclusive terms beginning in 2020, and to end other content deals beginning in 2022.

On July 31, 2019, Disney reorganized Hulu's reporting structure, placing Hulu's Scripted Originals team under Walt Disney Television. Under the new structure, Hulu's SVP of Original Scripted Content would report directly to the chairman of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment. As of November 2019, FX and Fox Searchlight were assigned to supply Hulu with content. In January 2020, Disney eliminated the role of Hulu CEO, with its top executives to report directly to DTCI and Walt Disney Television. On January 31, 2020, Freer resigned as CEO of Hulu and the position was eliminated; Hulu's top executives now report directly to DTCI and Walt Disney Television.

In June 2021, it was reported that Comcast had accused Disney of undermining Hulu's growth and value by not engaging in international expansion of the service, having instead added the Star brand as an extension of Disney+ in selected markets. In August 2021, Disney CEO Bob Chapek suggested that Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ could similarly be merged in the future, citing that the existing bundle offering of the services had a lower rate of churn than the individual services, but in the U.S. "there may also be certain constraints that we're under that could at least, from a short-term standpoint, limit our ability to do what long term we might feel was ideal, but frankly we don't know what’s ideal yet."

On September 7, 2021, Hulu announced that the prices of its main video on-demand and ad-free plans would increase by $1 each to $6.99 and $12.99 per-month beginning October 8. In October 2021, Hulu president Kelly Campbell resigned, and was subsequently appointed the president of NBCUniversal's competing service Peacock. In its third-quarter earnings report, Comcast CFO Mike Cavanagh stated of Hulu that they were "happy to be along for that ride", and projected that "It’ll be fine if we stay until the end because I expect the value to keep increasing."

On November 22, 2021, Disney and WarnerMedia reached a deal to let select 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures films stream on Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max in 2022. On the same day, ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported that Comcast was considering pulling some content from Hulu to boost their Peacock streaming service. On March 4, 2022, it was reported that NBCUniversal will pull content from Hulu and move them to Peacock, beginning in September. In January 2022, Joe Earley became president of Hulu.

In September 2022, Chapek indicated that Disney is considering merging Hulu into Disney+ because the model had been successful outside the United States without any content friction. To accelerate the plan, he said that Disney would love to buy out Comcast's 33.3% stake in Hulu earlier than their previously agreed 2024 timeline. However, Comcast had not offered reasonable terms for an early buyout and had instead expressed interest in buying Hulu themselves if it were for sale.

Content

Original content

From January 17, 2011, to April 24, 2014, Hulu streamed its own in-house web series '' The Morning After'', a light-hearted pop-culture news show. It was produced by Hulu in conjunction with Jace Hall's HDFilms and stars Brian Kimmet and Ginger Gonzaga. Producing the show was a first for the company, which in the past has been primarily a content distributor.

On January 16, 2012, Hulu announced that it would be airing its first original script based program, titled '' Battleground'', which premiered in February 2012. The program aired on Hulu's free web service rather than on the subscription-based Hulu Plus. ''Battleground'' is described as a documentary-style political drama.

Later that same month, Hulu announced it would air ''The Fashion Fund'', a six-part reality series, and the winner of the show would receive $300,000 to start their career.

To continue with its original programming movement, Hulu announced that there would be a total of seven original programs that were planned to air on its service: ''Battleground'', ''Day in the Life'', and ''Up to Speed'' were previously mentioned; and on April 19, Hulu added four more shows to its list: ''Don't Quit Your Daydream'', ''Flow'', ''The Awesomes'', and ''We Got Next''. Some of these programs began airing in 2012, while others premiered over the next few years.

On May 21, 2012, Hulu announced it would be bringing Kevin Smith to its lineup of original programming. Smith hosts a movie discussion show titled '' Spoilers'', which began airing in mid-2012.

In March 2016, Lionsgate Premiere and Hulu jointly acquired distribution rights to the film ''Joshy'', which was later released on August 12, 2016.

On May 4, 2016, Hulu acquired '' The Beatles: Eight Days a Week'', as its first documentary acquisition, as part of a planned Hulu Documentary Films collection. The film premiered theatrically on September 15, before debuting on the streaming service on September 17.

Since September 2022, selected International programs that released on Disney+’s Star Hub and Disney+ original International content that is over the rating limit (maximum TV-14 and PG-13) in United States market begins to release on Hulu.

Content partners

Following the start of its service, Hulu signed deals with several new content providers making additional material available to consumers. On April 30, 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced that it would join the venture, purchasing a 27 percent stake in Hulu.

Starting August 15, 2011, viewers of content from Fox and related networks are required to authenticate paid cable or satellite service wherever Fox streams episodes, including on Hulu, to be able to watch them the morning after the first airing. Non-subscribers will see those episodes delayed a week before they are viewable.

On October 28, 2011, Hulu announced that they had inked a five-year deal with The CW, giving the streaming site access to next-day content from five of the six major networks. On September 18, 2013, Hulu announced a multi-year deal with the BBC
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