NBC Launching VOD Service — What about Hulu?
What about Hulu? — NBC will offer its top television shows as ad-supported downloads for up to a week after broadcast on a new service called "NBC Direct" that will launch this fall, the network is announcing today. It seems we're not the only ones scratching …
Context & Ripple Effects
The announcement lands two weeks after NBC confirmed it would not renew its iTunes distribution agreement with Apple, following a failed renegotiation earlier in September — so NBC Direct reads as the network building its own storefront rather than accepting someone else's terms. The service itself is modest: ad-supported downloads of top shows available for up to a week after broadcast.
The timing is awkward for Hulu. The joint venture only revealed its name on August 29 after five months of silence, positioned itself against YouTube, and closed its first acquisition — Beijing-based Mojiti — on September 12. TechCrunch's take on the news ('Is Hulu Doomed?') frames the open question: whether NBC running its own VOD service sidelines the very venture it co-founded. That tension is unconfirmed, not settled, but the New York Times and Wall Street Journal both picked up the story, signaling how much rides on the answer.
First-order effects
- NBC gains a direct-to-viewer channel for its top shows, keeping ad revenue and viewer data in-house instead of splitting them with Apple, whose store loses the NBC catalog when the existing contract expires.
- Viewers get free week-after-broadcast downloads of hit shows, undercutting the paid-download model NBC just walked away from.
Second-order effects
- Hulu's other stakeholders now face pressure to define the venture's role: if each network self-distributes, a shared portal competes with its own parents — hence the immediate speculation about Hulu's viability.
- Rival networks watching NBC go direct must decide whether to follow with their own ad-supported windows or double down on third-party platforms, shaping where exclusive online rights flow.
Third-order effects
- If networks keep building owned ad-supported VOD while licensing selectively, the industry splits between broadcaster-controlled hubs and independent aggregators — making exclusive-content rights, not distribution technology, the scarce asset.
- The episode becomes a template test of whether joint-venture streaming platforms can survive when a single member's direct channel raises exit questions — a governance problem every media consortium since has had to price in.
The trend: Broadcasters are shifting from renting shelf space on paid download stores toward owning their own ad-supported VOD channels, forcing every multi-network streaming venture to justify why it exists.