Hulu, the streaming video service, began providing Internet-delivered, on-demand video some ten years ago. The company’s fortunes have moved on leaps and bounds since it began streaming live television content in 2017. The company is estimated to have spent $2.5 billion on content in 2017, and has its sights set for further growth during 2018 and 2019, according to USA Today.
The implications of Hulu’s growth means that the three major founding stakeholders in Disney (ABC), Fox and Comcast (NBC Universal), each owns a 30 percent share of Hulu, need to put in ore cash than they did in 2017, at a level estimated to be twice the rate. Disney itself has committed some $450 million to Hulu for 2018.
[url=https://www.hulu.com/welcome?orig_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F t=_blank]Hulu is oriented towards instant streaming of television series and it carries current and past episodes of many series from the major television networks that have a stake in the company, to the U.S. and Japanese market. The main competitors to Hulu are Netflix and Amazon.
Hulu divides content into free and paid tiers, with the paid service further divided into advertising-supported and ad-free tiers. As of May 2018, Hulu has around 20 million paying subscribers ($7.99 monthly) and about 800,000 of those have paid for their live TV service (£39.99 per month).
As well as broadcasting shows from its partner media companies, Hulu has some original dramas in production like Castle Rock, which is based on a series of Stephen King novels; plus a television adaptation of Four Weddings and a Funeral; and a Catch-22 thriller produced by George Clooney.
In terms of how well Hulu does, CNBC notes that Hulu does not report official numbers. However, the service is generally regarded to make a loss, which CNBC estimates to be around $1.5 billion. Despite this, the main investors see this way of collecting content across various channels and offering a one-stop location is the future. As it stands, Disney is set to double its stake in Hulu once it closes its proposed acquisition of media company Fox.
