Hulu, the partnership between NBC, ABC and Fox experimenting with high-quality, ad-supported, professional online video content, is aiming to break out of its US-only limited service.
Jessica Vascellaro and Sam Schechner reported in the Wall St. Journal this afternoon that Hulu CEO Jason Kilar told them the company is looking to expand internationally and may be willing to take on additional investors to do so.
“Mr. Kilar said there is an ‘unmet need’ for an online television service in markets around the world,” the Journal report says, “but he declined to specify what countries Hulu is targeting or its time frame.” Vascellaro and Schechner cite an unnamed source who claims Japan is first on the list.
The web may be global, but content distribution rights generally aren’t. The products of the most powerful content industries, like music, movies and TV, are often licensed by distributors for distribution in one country at a time, and in highly limited circumstances. That’s why Pandora can’t be listened to outside the US and why Spotify hasn’t been able to come to the US yet, because music industry rights holders want a whole lot of money from the technology companies that would like to play their music world-wide.
New investors would help Hulu pay more licensing fees and help the company grow beyond the limits of its current advertising and premium subscription revenues.
For would-be online TV watchers around the world, the Journal report is simply good news. It means the high-quality viewing experience of Hulu looks a little more likely to be available to you in the future than it is today.
