BIG news!! Hulu now has content from Fox, NBC, ABC and all of their parent (and subsidiary) companies!!

The Walt Disney Co. is taking a stake in Hulu.com. This means titles from The Walt Disney Studios library of films and full-length episodes of ABC television shows will join the online video site.
Disney joins NBC Universal, News Corp. and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, who own Hulu in a joint venture.

Disney said Chief Executive Robert Iger, Disney/ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney and Kevin Mayer, a Disney senior vice president, will join Hulu's board.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118003024.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

More details on this huge story!

After weeks of speculation, The Walt Disney Company announced today that it has bought an equity stake in online video site Hulu and will add its TV shows and movies from Walt Disney Studios to the site.

Disney, which made the deal through subsidiary ABC Enterprises Inc., joins News Corp., NBC Universal and Providence Equity Partners as an equity partner in the fast-growing TV and movie-streaming site. Terms of the deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, were not announced. A studio source said Disney will have near parity with News Corp. and NBC. Other sites have reported it would take a stake between 27% and 30%, which the source said is within the realm of possibility.

Once the deal closes, Hulu will begin streaming current ABC hits Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives and other current shows the day after they air on TV, mirroring Disney's streaming strategy on ABC.com and other Disney sites. Disney also offers streams of its shows through distribution partners AOL, Fancast and Xbox Live, which it will continue to do. Hulu, along with Disney and its partners, will get an exclusive window for Disney content.

In addition to ABC primetime shows, Disney will also offer other current and library shows from ABC Daytime, ABC Family, the Disney Channel as well as “popular titles” from Walt Disney Studios to the site. The company hasn’t yet said what movies will be added.

Once Disney content is added, Hulu will have TV shows from three of the four major networks. CBS doesn't have a distribution deal with Hulu and streams its content at rival site TV.com, which it owns.

In statements announcing the deal, top execs with Hulu, News Corp and NBC Universal said the addition of ABC programming would help drive even more viewers to Hulu.

Hulu became the third most popular video streaming site online in March, streaming 380 million videos, a 14% jump from the previous month, according to the latest Comscore numbers. Disney Online streamed 125 million videos during the month.

Disney cited Comscore numbers that show the sites serve two different audiences, with ABC.com and other Disney sites serving core fans and Hulu serving more casual ABC viewers. Just 13% of visitors to Hulu go to ABC.com or other Disney sites to watch videos while 8% of Disney online viewers go to Hulu.

Disney was the first network to begin streaming TV shows more than two years ago. The studio also sells its shows online as downloads through iTunes and CinemaNow.

"From our landmark iTunes deal to our pioneering decision to stream ad supported shows on our ABC.com player, Disney has sought to meet the constantly evolving viewing habits of our consumers, and today's Hulu announcement is the next important step in that ongoing journey," Disney president and CEO Robert Iger said in a statement announcing the deal.

For its equity stake, Disney will receive three seats on the Hulu board to be held by Iger, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group Anne Sweeney, and executive VP of corporate strategy and business development and technology Kevin Mayer.

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said the addition of ABC content Hulu will “continue to aspire to deliver a service that users, advertisers and content owners unabashedly love.”

In a blog post on Hulu.com, he called Disney a cultural fit with Hulu.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6655511.html?desc=topstory

Variety's updated take:

The Mouse House is climbing aboard the Hulu express.

Disney has signed on as an equity partner with NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners in the fast-growing Internet vid site that ranks No. 2 to YouTube as a purveyor of web video. Once the deal formally closes, Disney will make full-length episodes of a range of Mouse House shows, including ABC hits “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives,” available for ad-supported web streaming via Hulu’s proprietary player.

Mouse’s research found that there’s very little overlap between the Hulu and ABC.com user base, which means there’s vast opportunity to draw more viewers to Disney-owned content. According to Sweeney, only 8% of ABC.com users also spend time on Hulu, and only 13% of Hulu’s aud visits ABC.com.

“We found that all of the network sties from the various TV networks are performing well but they’re really super-serving their core viewers -- people who would naturally be inclined to go to a network’s website,” Sweeney said. “But we’re seeing very fast growth in casual viewing online through these big online video aggregators (like Hulu), and that’s something we hadn’t tapped into yet. It’s one of the things that made us think that Hulu was the next step for us.”

Sweeney praised Hulu’s user interface and easy to navigate site as being both user- and advertiser-friendly.

As the old-guard TV networks embrace online distribution of their programming, the big question is how much is all that online viewing cutting into viewership of traditional telecasts, and thereby cutting into the price that networks can command for commercials. Digital advertising is growing but still only delivers a fraction of the revenue that the nets derive from TV spots.

Sweeney said that Mouse is not seeing the aud and ad revenue cannibalization that some have feared from online distribution of network hits -- as evidenced by the Mouse’s decision to join up with Hulu.

Online advertising “is a new source of money for us,” Sweeney said. “It’s a new revenue stream and one that we believe will grow.”

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118003024.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

This is great news! Only 13 more months left on my DirecTV contract, and at this rate, I won't need it after that....I might just switch over to all streaming. Depends how fast the HD comes/evolves as well as Hulu streaming (using PlayOn right now) and Netflix (Using my 360 right now), and of course what shakes out with the whole bandwidth cap thing....which I suspect will be nipped in the bud.