Hulu

Hulu is officially following in the footsteps of corporate sibling Disney+ and streaming giant Netflix by implementing restrictions on the sharing of accounts and subscriber passwords. The move has been expected for several months.

The premiere episode of the streamer’s original series, based on the books by Rick Riordan, has now amassed 26.2M views in its first three weeks on Disney+ and Hulu, according to the company. That’s double the viewership it managed in its first week. Disney says that all five available episodes have surpassed 10M views in their first week on the platform, which seems to stay in line with the premiere’s initial viewership, though some decline is very usual and expected as the season progresses.

Pete Hammond of Deadline on Fox’s broadcast of the awards show, its celebration of TV after the strike-induced delay, as well as his “severe case of déjà vu”: “It is as if in this vast TV universe of networks, streamers, cable, You Tube and more content that a human being could ever consume, the people who vote for awards have only seen three shows.”

HBO’s Succession and FX’s The Bear led all shows with six wins each, including Outstanding Drama and Comedy Series, respectively. Netflix’s Beef took five trophies including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. HBO’s now-wrapped Succession also was an Emmys force, with six big wins including its third for Outstanding Drama Series. Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook won Best Actor and Actress in a Drama, and Matthew Macfadyen went back-to-back in the Supporting Actor in a Drama category. It also won for Directing and Writing for a Drama Series.

T-Mobile is sweetening the deal for its most expensive wireless plan with another free streamer: The carrier is bundling the ad-supported version of Disney’s Hulu for no extra charge later this month. Starting Jan. 24, Hulu With Ads (normally $7.99 per month) will be included at no extra cost as a part of T-Mobile’s Go5G Next unlimited plan. Under such agreements, the distributor (i.e., T-Mobile) typically pays a wholesale per-subscriber fee to the content provider (i.e., Hulu).

ABC News Studios continues to provide true-crime docuseries to Hulu. The studio is behind two new series for the streamer including Daughters of the Cult and Me, Hereafter as well as a second season of Death in the Dorms. It is the third slate of true-crime docs from ABC News Studios since its 2022 launch and follows series such as Killing County, Betrayal: The Perfect Husband and three seasons of Wild Crime.

There was a time when streamers — led by Netflix, burning a hole in its balance sheet with annual negative cash flow in the billions — were banking on double-digit subscriber growth. And they were spending on content like there was no tomorrow. Well, tomorrow came.

Newcomers Netflix and Disney Plus were not tracked.

Hulu has said thanks but no thanks to a reality show that would have featured the family of Sean “Diddy” Combs, Deadline has confirmed. The project from James Corden’s production company was in the early stages when the decision was made to bag it after multiple lawsuits alleging sexual assault were filed against the mega-producer.

Disney has added Hulu as a sixth vertical on the home screen of Disney+, with the integrated “one-app experience” officially launching today in beta. Plans call for the full rollout of the combined app next March. The launch scheme, initially announced last month during Disney’s quarterly earnings call, comes as Disney is in the process of buying out Comcast’s one-third stake in Hulu and becoming its full owner.

The value of Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu is expected to go well beyond that figure following an appraisal process for the popular streaming service.

Futurama, which Hulu revived (for the second time in the show’s life) earlier this year, will extend its run on the streamer. Hulu has ordered two more seasons — 20 episodes’ worth — of the animated series from creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. Hulu’s initial pickup of Futurama in 2022 was also for two seasons and 20 episodes, so the new order will take the show through season 14. Season 12 is set to premiere in 2024.

One day after the Disney and Comcast co-owned streamer went on the market, Disney is buying the remaining 33% stake in Hulu for $8.61 billion. While there will be some hoops for Disney to jump through to complete the purchase, the company is predicting the deal will be completed “during the 2024 calendar year.”

Comcast and Disney have hired investment banks to value Hulu, the next step in what’s been a nearly five-year process to put the streaming service under one owner. Comcast, which owns one-third of Hulu, has hired Morgan Stanley, and Disney, which owns the other two-thirds, has hired JPMorgan Chase. Each bank is tasked with providing a fair value for Hulu — a condition of an agreement set up in 2019 that allows either Disney or Comcast to trigger an option forcing Disney to buy Comcast’s 33% stake.

Only Murders in the Building has been renewed for a fourth season by Hulu. Now that the WGA strike is over, the writers room is expected to reconvene shortly. The Season 3 premiere of Murders had the most viewers of any scripted Hulu Original in 2023.

For the love of Maddie Hayes, look what’s coming to Hulu: For the very first time, all 67 episodes of Moonlighting will be available to stream on the platform beginning Oct. 10. Hulu promises that each episode of the 1980s comedy starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd has been remastered in HD from the original film source. It even will feature the original Grammy-nominated title track recording from Al Jarreau.

Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building leapt onto Nielsen’s streaming charts for the week of August 7 to August 13. With the debut of Season 3, the series racked up 719M viewing minutes, making it to No. 9 on the overall Top 10 and No. 3 among streaming originals. According to Nielsen, the audience for Only Murders was a “carbon copy” of the series that’s been dominating streaming for the past eight weeks — Suits. That series had another impressive week with 3B viewing minutes once again across Netflix and Peacock.

Disney has seen a 60% jump in Hulu + Live TV subscriptions relative to internal expectations since a carriage impasse with Charter began, according to figures provided to Deadline by a Disney spokesperson. Last Thursday, 18 of Disney’s cable networks and eight ABC stations went dark on Charter’s Spectrum service in one of the most contentious and consequential TV carriage disputes in memory.

Comcast and Disney have modified their Hulu agreement to enable the expected buyout of Comcast’s one-third stake in the streamer to begin on September 30 instead of next January. The news was shared at a Goldman Sachs conference appearance by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, who said the initial minimum valuation of $27.5 billion for Hulu agreed to in 2019 was “just a hypothetical.” He suggested the final price tag could be much higher. Roberts said both companies “wanted to get this behind us,” so they reached an agreement last week to accelerate the timeline.

The battle between Charter Communications and Walt Disney, spurred due to cord-cutting, is now getting very tangled. Charter suggested last week that it might be ready to cut Disney networks from its programming lineup after the two companies reached an impasse in talks to extend their carriage contract. Now Disney is hinting to Charter subscribers that they might want to cut their connection with the large cable distributor.

A tipping point for the broadcast industry is coming, and part of it hinges on a problem that Disney chief Bob Iger created for himself.

The average cost of watching a major ad-free streaming service is going up by nearly 25% in about a year, as entertainment giants bet that customers will either pay up or switch to their cheaper and more-lucrative ad-supported plans.

The buzz about bundling has been steadily growing in TV industry circles since May, when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav took a break from his usual mustache-twirling to lay out a case for why companies with streaming platforms needed to get on the ball and figure out a way to package their respective services together in one consumer-friendly package — a.k.a. a bundle.

She had been SVP of content partnerships, acquisitions and scheduling. In her new role, she will expand her portfolio, assuming responsibility for the overall Hulu business.

Given the TV ad slowdown so far this year, as well as some content reductions, Disney/Comcast-owned Hulu is projected to see a 10% decline to $3.12 billion this year vs. 2022, according to new estimates from MoffettNathanson Research. However, the analysts project Hulu’s ad business will 5% rise to $3.27 billion next year, and another 5% to $3.44 billion in 2025.

Hulu is joining the latest round of programming purges. The streamer is pulling off a number of additional series from its service as part of Disney’s wider plan to cut streaming costs. The company revealed last month in an SEC filing that it would take $1.5 billion-$1.8 billion in write-downs associated with removing streaming programming from its platforms and expects to remove from more its direct-to-consumer platforms in the third quarter with another $400 million in impairment charges.

Hulu’s parents, Walt Disney Co. and Comcast, are negotiating to end their troubled marriage. Comcast can require Disney, which owns two-thirds of Hulu, to buy its one-third stake, or Disney can require Comcast to sell under a deal starting in 2024. Hulu has a minimum valuation of $27.5 billion under the agreement.

Disney is starting to pull content from streaming, with dozens of series and specials slated to leave Disney+ and Hulu on May 26, Deadline has learned. The titles, which are being removed from Disney’s streaming services globally, include Disney+’s Willow, Big Shot, Turner & Hooch, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Just Beyond, Diary of a Future President, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The World According to Jeff Goldblum and Hulu’s Y: The Last Man, Dollface, The Hot Zone, Maggie, Pistol and Little Demon. Clockwise from top left: Willow, Big Shot, The Mysterious Benedict Society, Pistol, Y: The Last Man and Dollface.