Disney content is now on Hulu, and in exchange The Walt Disney Company has taken an equal-third share of the service. Who wins and who loses in this deal? Is Hulu’s future all rosy or are there dark clouds on the horizon?
Disney Deals
At the end of March it was announced that short-form clips of Disney shows would be coming to YouTube. At the same time, The Walt Disney Company was said to be having discussions with Hulu about possibly coming on board.
A month later, almost to the day, and that deal has now been officially announced. Disney is now an equal partner in Hulu alongside the founding companies of NBC Universal and News Corp. Hulu will get content from ABC, ABC Daytime, SOAPnet, and The Disney Channel. While Disney will get a 27 percent share in the company.
Details, Details
This notably means that full episodes of Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Scrubs, and The View (amongst many others) will become available on the site. However, ESPN is not joining the party, with Disney keeping that gem off Hulu for the time being.
Despite this deal, ABC.com will continue to offer shows, some of which are now in 720p HD. But there’s no doubting the fact that this is a significant move on the part of both Disney and Hulu. It could be argued that both sides win big but there are bound to be losers.
Losers?
The most obvious loser is YouTube, which seems to have failed to do a deal with Disney to gain full-length content only to see its rapidly-growing rival Hulu do just that a few weeks later. Paid-for services offering similar content, such as Amazon and iTunes, will also probably lose out in the long-run. Why pay for something you can stream for free?
There is an argument to suggest Hulu could also suffer under this regime change (or shifting of power). NewTeeVee argues that Disney is yet another content provider that will need to be kept happy. Keeping NBC and News Corp. happy has already led to the whole Boxee debacle, as well as some shows suddenly disappearing from Hulu.
Winners!
In the long-run however this can surely only be a good thing for Hulu. The company is already growing in popularity at a startling rate, closing in on second place for Web viewers behind YouTube and the waning MySpace. But bringing Disney on board not only secures funding for the next two years or so, it also CBS is now the only major U.S. network not involved with the service. Whether the CBS-owned TV.com can ever compete is now definitely open to debate.
The only danger for the future of Hulu now seems to be the risk of falling foul to the anti-competitive rules which saw Project Kangaroo canned in the UK. Speaking of the UK, when the hell is Hulu going to be made available for those of us outside the U.S.? I fear Disney coming on board will hinder rather than help the chances of any movement on this score.
