The Silicon Alley Insider has posted that Disney will be taking a 30% stake in Hulu, giving it equal footing with both NBC Universal and News Corp, and beating out YouTube’s shot at long-form content.
As far as I’m concerned, Hulu provides one of the best viewing experiences for network content online (get some outside-the-US viewing, though, please!). If the deal pans out, Disney’s arrival should mean that their ABC Television programming, including Lost and Desperate Housewives, comes along with it, which only makes things better.
With some networks doing a pretty mediocre job of handling their own online video, it’s promising to see Hulu getting to critical mass with the addition of Disney/ABC. The Disney-Apple connection holds some intrigue here for me as well – how does the partial stake in Hulu play against Disney’s close relationship with Apple’s iTunes Store and products?
One can only hope that there might be some possibility of streaming (without modding your equipment) Hulu through the Apple TV, iPhone, etc. – because while YouTube is a nice addition to have integrated on these and other platforms, it just doesn’t compare with the superior interface and popular offerings that Hulu can provide (although it seems that Google is considering a Hulu-like redesign for YouTube, which would be very welcome).
At the very least, we’ll probably get more of those strange and cool Hulu ads…
…and the new one…
So which Hulu ad do you guys like best?
So, then, why isn’t Hulu streaming the ABC shows yet? They still just have links to the ABC website.
Hi Andy – I’ve been curious about that myself and am not sure what the answer is. Maybe just a logistical thing in terms of content formatting or something? No idea but let us know if you find anything out!