Hulu (/ˈhuːluː/) is an American streaming platform. Launched on October 29, 2007, it offers a library of films and television series from networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC, or FX, as well as Hulu original content. Hulu is currently only available in the United States.
Hulu is majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. 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 became the first streaming service to add "Plus" to its name when it 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 IPTV service featuring linear television channels. As of the fourth quarter of 2021, Hulu has 43.8 million subscribers.
Etymology[]
The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese words, 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: Hulu is Mandarin for gourd. And so when we were launching Hulu, we thought, 'what a great name that is.' And it had this great sort of symbolism of the holder of precious things, which is the holder of premium content. So that’s why we named it Hulu.
History[]
Individuals instrumental, [vague] 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 2006 with AOL, NBC Universal (then co-owned by General Electric and Vivendi), Facebook, 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, 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.
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 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.
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. 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 entirely; 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 created the standalone 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 November 22, 2021, it was reported that Comcast was considering pulling some content from Hulu to boost their Peacock streaming service.