Hulu to unveil VR apps and content this spring, says company's head of experience Ben Smith
Context & Ripple Effects
Hulu's spring pledge extends a partnership wave from fall 2015, when Oculus lined up Netflix, Hulu, Twitch, Vimeo, Lionsgate, and 20th Century Fox as launch content partners for Gear VR and Rift. What Smith is describing is Hulu converting that distribution deal into its own branded app and original 360-degree programming.
The timing matters because the format was still unproven: when the Gear VR app actually shipped that March, it offered only a limited 360 library plus standard video on a virtual living-room screen — a test of whether 'virtual big screen' viewing was a real use case or a demo.
First-order effects
- Hulu becomes one of the first major streamers with a committed VR roadmap, putting Ben Smith's experience team on the hook to produce 360-degree content for a small headset installed base while Netflix holds the same shelf space via the Oculus deal.
Second-order effects
- Rivals treat the virtual big screen as table stakes: WEVR builds a Netflix-style subscription service for cinematic VR on Vive and Gear VR, Google Daydream adds HBO and NextVR with Netflix promised, and Amazon eventually ships a dedicated Prime Video VR app for Oculus headsets.
Third-order effects
- The pattern reverses by 2020, when Hulu and Samsung pull their 360-video apps as Oculus sunsets the Go headset and Facebook declares 6DOF immersion the future — leaving streaming VR as a per-platform experiment each service re-evaluates with every hardware generation rather than a permanent distribution channel.
The trend: Major streamers spent the late 2010s treating VR as an experimental second interface for existing libraries, then retreated as headset formats shifted from 360-degree video to full immersive tracking.