I’ve been hearing rumblings of this for a while, it will be interesting to see if it comes to pass. If Disney joins NBC, FOX and ABC would all be participating. Getting three rivals to participate together is much, much harder than getting two. We’ll see.
From Paidcontent.org:
The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company could wind up with an equity stake in Hulu in exchange for adding ABC programming to the NBC Universal-News Corp (NYSE: NWS) joint venture, a source familiar with the situation tells paidContent. It’s not clear how much of Disney’s television programming is involved beyond ABC—a second source says all Disney content has been discussed but it centers on ABC; other possibilities could include ESPN (not likely given ESPN’s reliance on license fees from cable operators and others) and, if not the Disney Channel, some offshoots. The discussions, dormant for a while, have picked up again recently and are described as “serious” by both sources. A third source close to the situation said the discussions with Disney are “definitely real”—and more so than before—but cautioned against saying any deal has been reached.
I think it would be more interesting to see what if anything CBS does if ABC content ends up on Hulu – if all three of their main rivals end up on Hulu surely there would be a sense of, ‘why aren’t we part of this?’ doing the rounds?
On the subject of Hulu adding to their content the UK based Digital Rights Group just signed a deal to provide Hulu with content from C4i and Portman, which opens up a potentially huge range of international content that won’t have been seen anywhere else in the US. It also suggests that Hulu are making progress in their attempts to launch internationally.
Alex, because of the way the licensing works, I think it’s going to be far easier for Hulu to include more content from outside the US for people IN the US than it will be for it to provide shows from the U.S. to people who live outside of the U.S.
I hope that they do join up. Because, seriously, ABC’s online viewer is the worst thing in the world, and having ABC programs viewable on Hulu would be a VAST improvement.
Robert from what’s being said over here the immediate intention doesn’t seem to be to launch the US content into the international market but to build up some kind of international portfolio that would then allow them to launch an international version of Hulu, so UK users would be able to access shows from UK providers through the site but not the US shows. As things stand I would guess that baby steps are the way forward with international expansion of the service and that seems to be the route they’re taking.
Of course now Kangaroo has officially been killed off over here the UK commercial channels would likely jump at the chance to stream content on Hulu to a UK audience if they were given it or an international audience for that matter. The BBC on the other hand would likely be quite happy sticking with the iPlayer.
Hmmm, what will CBS do if they’re the odd-net out here? If ABC Family is included in the deal, I might finally get a chance to check out “Secret Life…” I keep hearing how wonderful that show is.
CBS will keep pushing TV.com. They’ve been really pushing it lately, and it has been creeping up on hulu for views (though not for average time spent).
They are probably waiting to see the revenue numbers that are generated before adding their content.
I would.
Great, movement in the right direction, perhaps the pessimists thinking the content providers would be stingy with content for Hulu are wrong after all and the networks agree on Hulu as an important secondary distribution channel.
“They are probably waiting to see the revenue numbers that are generated before adding their content.” Those that go in early will be able to negotiate better deals though
Its not necessarily true that the quicker you jump on board the better the deal will be, if CBS is the only holdout and they continue to push TV.Com then in theory they’d likely be able to secure a much better deal a lot easier because Hulu will be keen to complete the set (as it were) and shut down TV.Com.
This bodes well for Pushing Daisies. It can now become an internet sensation, allowing room for it to be renewed for a third (and probably fourth) season.
Um, Daisies, everyone stopped talking about Pushing Daisies months ago. Bringing it up now just makes it seem like you have some sort of axe to grind, not like you are mocking PD fans.
Just a joke, Julia.
I thought that Disney/ABC was going to do something with Fancast.com since they hosted early online premieres of two ABC Family shows. Maybe it was a trial or a negotiation point? They could get rid of the annoying “limited time viewing” windows ABC uses now on their website. (Not to mention the stalling and stopping.)