Exclusives
Hulu CEO Randy Freer signaled that the company could be interested in expanding internationally as it awaits the outcome of the Disney-Fox merger.
The company witnessed a 40% rise to total 17 million subscribers last year — up 5 million — versus 2016, for all its subscription video-on-demand and its newer Hulu with Live TV products.
At the start of a busy CES as well as a transformative period when Disney moves to take majority control of the company, Hulu today announced that it ended fiscal 2017 with more than 17 million total subscribers in the U.S. The figure, which includes all SVOD and live TV plans, represents an increase of more than 40% — or 5 million — since Hulu last reported subscriber numbers in the spring of 2016.
Hulu has announced the addition of 61 second-city and small-town broadcast network affiliates to its virtual MVPD service. With the addition, Hulu Live now has access to 492 broadcast network O&Os and affiliates across its national footprint.
Netflix will likely end 2017 having added nearly 10 million subscribers in the U.S. alone, pushing its global paid subscriber base well over 110 million (versus 94 million at the start of the year). Its continued growth is all the more impressive when you consider that its streaming rivals also did very well this year — at least in terms of burnishing their brands. The best performance by a streamer not named Netflix was from Hulu, which in 2017 finally established itself as a legit player in original programming thanks to The Handmaid’s Tale.
TAG’s anti-fraud initiative aims to ensure that online material and ads are seen by people, as opposed to bots. Buyers (including advertisers and agencies), sellers (including publishers) and intermediaries (including ad networks) are eligible to receive a “Certified Against Fraud” seal indicating that they comply with TAG’s certification guidelines.
The freshman syndicated show from the New York Post and Endemol Shine North America will be available the day after broadcast beginning Thursday.
Hulu, the offspring of traditional TV companies, hopes to catch Madison Avenue’s eye with offers of new commercial formats that can be distributed to select cuts of audience based on program choices and other behaviors. Advertisers who sense a couch-potato migration from living-room TV to mobile screen might have interest.
Hopkins is leaving the streaming platform and moving to Sony Pictures Television, where he will fill the chairman role vacated by Steve Mosko. Randy Freer, who currently serves on the Hulu board, and has been president-COO of the Fox Networks Group since 2013, will take over as CEO at Hulu.
Hulu said today that it has added nine Fox affiliates to its virtual pay-TV service. Hulu said it now has deals with more than 290 TV stations and has more than two stations locked in for 80% of U.S. TV households.
The auction for reruns of This is Us began with the usual suspects. Streaming pioneer Netflix bid millions to offer NBC’s year-old hit. So did Amazon. Yet the domestic streaming rights went to a newer buyer: Hulu, the rival service owned by four big media companies, including two that made and broadcast This Is Us. The company and NBC bid about $3.5 million per episode for U.S. rights from 21st Century Fox, which produced the show.
Hulu is the latest big media platform to jump on the eSports bandwagon. The streaming service said on Monday that it is ordering four new original TV series about the popular online-gaming competitions from ESL, the company behind some of the world’s largest eSports tournaments.
Hulu SVP of Content Craig Erwich says that “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” eight Emmys mark a validation of the streamer’s original content path. He says Hulu has been moving towards shows “that have a really large canvas for storytelling, that are provocative, that hopefully provide a conduit and fodder for conversation, and that feel like events.”
Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins says his service’s bid for an Emmy via “The Handmaid’s Tale” could help draw new subscribers and hold on to current ones. Hulu will spend about $2.5 billion on content this year, part of an arms race that includes fellow streaming services Netflix and Amazon.
The move makes the young-skewing channel the fifth major broadcast network to stream live on the platform.
Just in time for football season, Hulu is bringing its Live TV experience to customers’ laptops and PCs via a new web browser interface. Until now, the company has been mostly focused on bringing Hulu’s Live TV offering to as many living room and mobile devices as possible. But Hulu says it’s now responding to customer feedback asking for access to the Live TV programming on laptops and computers as well.
Nielsen says three of the largest digital video platforms — Facebook, Hulu and YouTube — will now be included in its digital content ratings. That offers a broader view of media owners’ content.
Highlighting the steep cost of the original programming arms race currently unfolding in the SVOD market, Hulu’s losses through the first six months of 2017 have spiked 81% to $353 million. The data comes courtesy of BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield, who looked at SEC data filed by Hulu parents Fox, Walt Disney, Comcast and Time Warner.
