This morning, Hulu and Disneyannounced that Disney will join NBC Universal, News Corp., and Providence Equity Partners as a joint venture partner and equity holder of Hulu. Thanks to this, Hulu will now be able to feature shows from ABC’s prime-time lineup like “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Private Practice,” as well as shows from ABC Daytime and SOAPnet. Hulu will also now feature a select number of programs from the Disney Channel and library titles from Disney.
We heard a number of rumors about this deal in the last few days, so this announcement doesn’t come as a great surprise. Neither Hulu nor Disney disclosed the financial terms of the arrangement, but according to most reports, Disney will take a 30% stake in the joint venture. Disney will also get three seats on the Hulu board.
Hulu = Online TV?
Hulu was already on the brink of becoming the de facto standard for watching TV shows online, and adding Disney to its line-up only consolidates this position. Advertisers have been flocking to Hulu, and while it is getting some serious competition from TV.com, which is owned by CBS (which doesn’t have a deal with Hulu), this new deal should give it a nice boost in the next few months.
It should be noted that ABC’s own online player features 720p HD versions of all its major prime-time shows, something that Hulu currently doesn’t offer, so to get the best quality, users will still have to go to ABC.com.
CC-licensed image used courtesy of Flickr user Raymond Brown.
