Hulu, Networks Close To New Deal
Hulu and its network TV owners are close to a new deal that will keep programs from NBC, Fox and ABC on the Web video site. — An agreement to extend the content licenses that owners News Corp., Disney and NBCUniversal signed two years ago …
Context & Ripple Effects
Hulu's ownership has been a three-network structure since Disney completed its entry into the venture in spring 2009, joining founders News Corp. and NBCUniversal, and the company followed that by locking international TV licensing deals within weeks. The content licenses those owners signed at that point were structured on roughly a two-year term, which puts them at the expiry stage covered here.
The renewal talks come after months of signals that the owners are rethinking what Hulu should be: an unconfirmed January 2011 report suggested free ABC and Fox episodes could migrate to paid outlets like iTunes, even as Hulu Plus has been broadening its paid footing through device launches on Xbox 360 and library additions such as the Criterion Collection. A renewal on new terms would therefore decide not just whether NBC, Fox and ABC shows stay streaming, but under what business model.
First-order effects
- If the reported agreement closes, Hulu's founding content base — NBC, Fox and ABC programming from News Corp., Disney and NBCUniversal — stays licensed past the two-year term signed when Disney joined in 2009, removing the immediate risk of the site losing its core lineup.
- The deal remains unconfirmed, and its timing sits alongside a separate unconfirmed January report that free ABC and Fox content could shift to paid channels like iTunes — meaning the owners are weighing the free tier's survival at the same moment as the licenses.
Second-order effects
- Renewing as licensors rather than as committed partners gives the three network owners fresh leverage to push Hulu toward its paid Hulu Plus tier, where the service has concentrated its recent expansion across devices and catalog deals.
- Rival subscription video services competing for the same broadcast libraries face a Hulu whose flagship supply stays locked in for another term, raising the bar for any bid to peel that content away.
Third-order effects
- If every license cycle becomes a renegotiation, Hulu's own shareholders hold a structural lever over the platform they partially own — streaming access to broadcast TV becomes a term-limited, repriced asset rather than a settled commitment, shaping how any future owner or investor values the service.
The trend: Television network owners are converting streaming rights into renewable, term-limited licenses that keep distribution platforms dependent on periodic renegotiation.