ABC Works on an App for Live Streaming Shows to Mobile Devices
THE WALT DISNEY Company, while sorting out the future of the online video Web site Hulu, has an app in the works that may render Hulu passé for some people. — The app will live stream ABC programming to the phones …
Context & Ripple Effects
The reported app arrives as Hulu's owners face pressure to settle the service's strategic direction amid Amazon-Netflix competition. In 2011, coverage had already raised the prospect of Hulu moving toward live TV while ABC and Fox reconsidered free online availability, making a direct ABC mobile outlet a meaningful test of where Disney places its programming.
First-order effects
- If released, the ABC app would give mobile viewers a direct route to live ABC programming and make Hulu less essential for that use case.
- The reported product would require Disney and ABC to define how a broadcaster-owned mobile service fits alongside Hulu's shared-service model.
Second-order effects
- Hulu's owners face greater pressure to distinguish Hulu's role—such as aggregation or subscription access—from distribution that ABC can control directly.
- A direct ABC app shifts the competition for mobile viewing toward network-controlled apps, rather than leaving Hulu as the primary outlet for ABC programming.
Third-order effects
- If major networks follow ABC's approach, joint streaming ventures risk becoming complements to broadcaster-owned apps rather than the default gateway for television viewing.
- The story is an early signal that live programming rights may be deployed across distinct mobile products, increasing the strategic importance of who controls the viewer relationship.
The trend: Television networks are testing direct-to-mobile distribution while reassessing the role of shared streaming services such as Hulu.