
Hulu.com may have been joking about the whole alien brain-slurping thing, but they are hard at work filling their war chests with content from as many major networks as possible -- most recently ABC. We suppose we shouldn't be surprised -- after a super bowl commercial, the next obvious step is world domination...
After weeks of speculation, Disney on Thursday announced that it
has joined NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners
as a joint venture partner and equity owner of video content
aggregator Hulu.
Under the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, Hulu will
offer full-length episodes of current and library Disney TV
programs such as "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives,"
"Private Practice," "Ugly Betty," "Scrubs," "Greek" and "General
Hospital," which will be streamed on an ad-supported basis. This is a major step for Hulu, now claiming the bulk of the major
broadcast networks under one umbrella site/player. Sure Hulu still
doesn't have CBS, but that network's crime procedurals are typically
not the biggest online draws anyway. (The Live Feed)
We can't say we really blame all these networks -- if we were looking for an outside source to stream content online, we'd choose the one that was easiest to use, and hulu.com seems to have that criteria on lockdown. ABC had formerly made a deal with YouTube to show clips from ABC and ESPN programming, but made the switch to hulu for full episode streaming.
Previously:
YouTube Tries Too Hard
Hulu Will Have a Super Bowl Ad? Will It Be Better Than Pets.com?
New Classic "Sesame Street" Clips on Hulu
Eliza Dushku Hits Her Stride on Hulu