Hulu

Hulu has hired Emmy-winning casting director Barbara Fiorentino to serve as head of talent and casting, marking the first time that the streamer has hired an in-house head of casting. In this role, Fiorentino will oversee the casting of all Hulu Originals projects and work closely with external creative partners on key talent searches for upcoming and current original series.

Walt Disney Co’s Marvel superhero studio will produce four new adult-oriented animated series for the Hulu streaming service, Hulu said on Monday. Disney is reserving new programming for its own online platforms as the company works to transform into digital entertainment.

Hulu has hired two senior advertising executives who will head up two of four new sales units at the video streaming service — Jennifer Donohue and Tracie Maffei.

Hulu with Live TV, a cable-like package with CNN, ESPN and a few dozen other channels over the internet, will cost $45 a month starting Feb. 26, as Hulu seeks to make that service more profitable. Its basic video-on-demand service itself will now cost $6 a month, down from $8, when bought without Live TV. An ad-free version stays at $12.

Hulu, the video-streaming hub that is owned by Comcast, Fox and Disney, will launch its own effort to help sponsors determine “attribution,” or whether the ads people see spur a consumer to make a purchase or take some other concrete action, like sign up to take a test drive at a car dealership. “We have advertisers who want to move more quickly into that,” says Julie DeTraglia, head of research at Hulu.

Hulu is keeping its pedal to metal in the streaming TV race: The company said it ended 2018 with more than 25 million total subscribers, a net gain of 8 million for the year. The 47% year-over-year growth in subscribers for 2018 gives Hulu more video customers than the U.S.’s biggest pay-TV providers — including Comcast, one of its owners.

When Disney finally closes its deal to acquire 21st Century Fox’s film and TV assets early next year, the company will gain — among many things — ownership of Hulu, which has never before had just one company hold a controlling stake. But with Disney also readying the launch of its own Disney-branded streaming service next year, it will now have ownership of two competing streaming services, which begs the question: How will Disney be able to launch Disney+ while allowing Hulu to continue to grow?

Producers Sony Pictures Television are making the most (financially) out of Jeopardy. Netflix announced Monday that it has acquired 45 library episodes of the Alex Trebek-hosted quiz show, which will be available to stream for the first time on the service starting Tuesday. The announcement follows an August deal that Sony Pictures TV made with Hulu for 60 episodes of the syndicated game show.

Hulu is hoping to boost its over-the-top live TV subscriber rolls by extending a special promo to Sprint’s wireless customers. Starting Oct. 19, Sprint customers can upgrade to Hulu With Live TV, which includes 50-plus local and national networks and access to thousands of on-demand titles, from their Sprint account.

Hulu wants to cater to a new crowd of pay-TV “cord-shavers” with stripped-down, less-expensive live television bundles that include sports, news and on-demand content — dropping linear entertainment networks to save costs.

Assistant Attorney General Markhan Delrahim, the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, says his department plans to take a closer look at Comcast’s involvement in Hulu’s management, now that restrictions tied to its acquisition of NBCUniversal have expired.

Hulu has ordered eight new one-hour interconnected episodes of the series, starring Kristen Bell, that premiered in 2004 and aired on UPN for two seasons and The CW for one. Bell announced the news Thursday on her Instagram account.

Sinclair Broadcast Group just lost a bargaining chip in its negotiations with streaming service Hulu. Sinclair had refused to let Hulu offer live CBS programming in two dozen markets across the U.S. unless the online TV platform also agreed to carry another Sinclair property, the Tennis Channel. But Hulu instead reached a deal with CBS Corp. to offer a national feed of the network in the markets where Sinclair operates a local affiliate.

The streaming service kicks off Friday’s launch of the iconic syndicated game show with 60 curated episodes. The show, which is produced by Sony Pictures Television and distributed in syndication by CBS Television Distribution, is entering its 35th season in syndication on Monday, Sept. 10.