Can Hulu Take Down Netflix?
by EG
Want to stream This Is Us, Will & Grace or 30 Rock? Better sign up for a Hulu subscription, because your Netflix account isn't going to deliver those shows to you. NBC recently signed a deal to bring its biggest series to Hulu instead of Netflix. It's a sign that content creators are increasingly looking beyond Netflix for a place to put their shows. Add to that the fact that Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale just became the first streamer original series to win a Best Drama Emmy, and you've got a real indication that Netflix's dominance of the streaming world may be coming to an end.
In a landscape where networks such as CBS, HBO and Showtime are hoarding their libraries to launch their own over-the-top services, NBCUniversal seems to be taking the opposite approach.
The Comcast-owned company has been steadily moving its shows to Hulu, inking a massive SVOD deal Sept. 27 to transplant 30 Rock and Parenthood from their longtime home at Netflix. The pact comes a week after Hulu became the exclusive streaming destination of the original eight seasons of Will & Grace, and four months after the two companies struck a record-breaking deal in May for last season's breakout drama This Is Us (which is produced by 20th Century Fox TV).
As part of the latest agreement, Hulu also will pick up competition series Face Off, from NBCU-owned cable network Syfy; U.K. reality show Made in Chelsea; and Paul Reiser's new comedy There's … Johnny, which was originally set to premiere Aug. 24 on Seeso, the NBCU-owned comedy streaming platform that the company announced Aug. 9 would shutter by the end of the year. Johnny's debut on Hulu keeps it somewhat in the family, given that NBCU owns a 30 percent stake in the streamer (alongside Disney-ABC Television Group and Fox Entertainment Group as well as Turner, which has a 10 percent stake).
"The [Sept. 27] deal makes sense for NBCUniversal given its equity stake in Hulu and its recent decision to pull the plug on its own SVOD service," eMarketer principal analyst Paul Verna tells THR. "It makes sense also for Hulu because it's still playing catchup to Netflix and Amazon when it comes to exclusive content."
But why shift the libraries now, when Hulu has been around for a decade? "The streaming ecosystem is well enough established that networks don't feel they need Netflix to the extent they used to, so more of them are venturing off on their own," says Verna. "The dynamic is similar to the tensions between music labels and Apple over the latter's iTunes store years ago, but TV and film content owners now have more alternatives than their music counterparts did."
Read the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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