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Netflix Continues To Crush Competition In Fast-Growing Streamed TV Market: Report

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday June 4, 2013 @ 6:06am PDTTags: Amazon Prime, Big Deals TV, Hulu Plus, Netflix

TV shows accounted for 80% of the streams for subscription video on demand (SVOD) services in Q1, The NPD Group reports this morning — and the number of people who watched TV online was up 34% vs the period last year. But although the research group notes that Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus are gaining market share, the folks at Netflix shouldn’t be worried. The company accounted for about 89% of the TV streams, while Hulu Plus had 10% followed by Amazon Prime’s 2%. “There’s no doubt that Netflix is driving the growth in SVOD, particularly with increased attention to television programming,” says SVP of Industry Analysis Russ Crupnick. Consumers are starting to consider the alternatives. The ranks of Netflix-only SVOD subscribers dropped to 67% from 76%. Another 10% used Netflix and Amazon Prime while 8% used Netflix and Hulu. Although Netflix has had a “virtual monopoly on the SVOD market,” Crupnick says, “we are beginning to see increasing trial” of Hulu and Amazon. The data comes from a survey of 46,403 SVOD subscribers and was weighted to reflect U.S. Internet users over age 13.

Related: Viacom Agrees To Multi-Year Streaming Deal With Amazon

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Hulu Touts Record Revenue, Original Series At Upfront Presentation

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday April 30, 2013 @ 9:30am PDTTags: Eva Longoria, Hulu, Hulu Plus, Seth Meyers

Hulu said today during its upfront presentation in New York that it set a revenue record in the first quarter of this year with $695M, and that Hulu Plus subscriptions passed 4 million subscribers after doubling in 2012. The service now has almost 2500 TV series and about 57,000 hours of content. Among the talent on hand was Seth Meyers and Michael Shoemaker to promote their animated superhero series The Awesomes, one of four original series that will debut this year. Among Hulu’s four announced exclusive series is the Eva Longoria-starring animated series Mother Up!, about a disgraced former music exec who must transition to a life of suburban motherhood. Other talent working up shows are Mario Batali, Carson Daly and Jay Mohr, who is toplining the new game show Money Where Your Mouth Is. Hulu also is streaming Prospect Park’s revamped soap operas All My Children and One Life To Live, which launched yesterday and were the two most-watched TV episodes of the day. Here is  Hulu’s descriptions of its new series: Read More »

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Apple TV Relents And Offers Its Users Access To Hulu Plus

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday July 31, 2012 @ 7:31am PDTTags: Apple TV, Hulu Plus

This could be a significant change for Apple: So far it has only made iTunes and Netflix available to Apple TV users who wanted to order movies and TV shows. Strangely, the companies aren’t saying much about the decision. There’s … Read More »

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Hulu Boasts 60% Growth, HuluPlus Soars

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 4:47pm PSTTags: Hulu, Hulu Plus

Hulu may be small, but like a healthy kid it’s growing fast. Overall business for the online streaming service grew 60% last year over 2010, CEO Jason Kilar noted today on the Hulu blog. Revenue climbed to about $420 million. … Read More »

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Past Seasons Of ‘Community’ Will Now Be Available On Hulu

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday December 2, 2011 @ 11:06am PSTTags: Community, Hulu, Hulu Plus, NBC, Sony Pictures TV
Nellie Andreeva

So far, only the five most recent episodes of the Sony TV-produced Community were available on the NBCUniversal-backed Hulu streaming service. Starting today, all three seasons of the quirky new comedy will be available on the subscription-based Hulu Plus. The … Read More »

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Sony Wants Its Own Digital Video Service, But Don’t Count On A War With Cable

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday November 16, 2011 @ 8:46am PSTTags: Amazon, Apple, Blu-ray, Discovery Communications, Google, Hulu Plus, microsoft, NBCUniversal, Netflix, News Corp, PlayStation, Samsung, Sony

I’m told that Sony is indeed sounding out cable programmers including Discovery, NBCUniversal, and News Corp to see whether they’re willing to cut deals to have their shows streamed to Sony devices such as PlayStations and Blu-ray players. The Japanese tech and entertainment giant is thinking about a model that would resemble Amazon’s with its new Kindle Fire tablet: It might cut the price of the devices, and count on subscription payments to make up the lost revenues. But nothing is imminent. And the feeling is that The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news about Sony’s plans this morning, pushed too hard on the possibility that the tech and entertainment giant might end up with a full-fledged rival to cable TV. Sony has raised the idea with programmers of offering channels live, just as they’d appear on cable. Insiders tell me, though, that there’s only a remote possibility that Sony will make much headway with that idea — except perhaps with minor networks that have few carriage deals. They consider it significant that Sony is telling programmers that it is open to creating a more conventional subscription VOD service like Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu Plus. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung have also been sniffing around to see what programming they can offer via the Internet, and on what terms. Meanwhile, pay TV companies are working on TV Everywhere deals so they can stream shows to subscribers’ digital devices. Read More »

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UPDATE: Starz Looks For A Premium Streaming Service To Replace Netflix

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday November 8, 2011 @ 6:34am PSTTags: Boss, Encore, Hulu Plus, John Malone, Liberty Media, Liberty Media Earnings, Liberty Starz Group, Netflix, Netflix Online Rights, Starz Entertaiment

UPDATE, 12: 00 PM: No word from Starz execs about when they might announce a digital streaming deal to replace the one with Netflix, which expires in February. “There are a lot of conversations going on,” Starz CEO Chris Albrecht told analysts today. “It’s a road that needs to be evaluated almost on a weekly basis.” The company hopes to license programs from its premium channel to a premium-priced streaming service – meaning, one that charges more than Netflix. As more companies enter the online video market “they’ll begin to segment and differentiate,” says Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei. “That’s something we would embrace.” Albrecht said that “we didn’t believe it was appropriate to have our products included in a low-cost service.” Do they really expect lots of consumers to pay high prices in this weak economy — especially with the anemic numbers cable and satellite companies are posting for premium channels? At Starz the 3Q sub figure was Read More »

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CW Strikes 5-Year Licensing Deal With Hulu

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Friday October 28, 2011 @ 11:44am PDTTags: CW, Hulu, Hulu Plus

The agreement comes two weeks after CW cut a similar deal with Netflix. This one will provide CW programming both to the free Hulu service as well as the subscription Hulu Plus. It means that by year end, Hulu will have current-season episodes of shows from ABC, CW, Fox, NBC and Univision. Hulu SVP Andy Forssell says in a blog post that Hulu Plus will be “the only online subscription service to offer next-day access to the most recent five current primetime episodes, in HD” via broadband. Users of the free service “will be able to watch five episodes of current season programming eight days after airing.”

Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker says that the Hulu deal will generate a lot less cash for CBS — which co-owns CW with Time Warner — than it will see from Netflix. She estimates the new agreement will deliver about a penny a share annually which she says “is not financially material.” (She said CBS might see as much as 5 cents a share from Netflix.) Hulu will have fewer shows, and only five episodes at a time; Netflix has exclusive access to full seasons of shows that aren’t in season. Still, she adds, “this is another way that CW can approach breakeven and ultimately reach profitability.”

Here’s the release:

(October 28, 2011) –The CW Television Network, a joint venture of CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment, announced today a five-year licensing agreement with Hulu for the rights to stream in-season episodes of The CW’s programming on the Hulu Plus subscription service and the free, ad-supported Hulu service.

With this agreement, Hulu Plus will be the only online subscription service to carry in-season episodes of The CW’s drama and reality series, with the five most recent episodes of each show available to subscribers the next day after broadcast. Users of the free, ad-supported Hulu service will be able to watch five episodes of current season programming eight days after airing on The CW.

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Hulu Plus Had 875K Subscribers In June

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday July 6, 2011 @ 3:15pm PDTTags: Comcast, Disney, Hulu, Hulu Plus, Hulu Plus Subcription Service, Hulu Viacom, Jason Kilar, NBCUniversal, News Corp, Viacom

No word about Hulu’s effort to find a buyer. But CEO Jason Kilar offers a strong sales pitch for the company in a status report he posted online today. He says the company owned by Disney, News Corp and Comcast’s NBCUniversal is “on pace to approach half a billion in 2011 revenue.” With 875,000 customers in June paying $7.99 a month to watch streamed movies and TV shows on Hulu Plus, “we anticipate exceeding 1 million paying subscribers before the end of this summer” — a target the company originally expected to hit at year’s end. Kilar says that when ad sales are thrown in, “we proudly and profitably pay the content community approximately $8 per subscriber per month for the content offering you see today on Hulu Plus.” The CEO adds that it is able to “thrive on low margins and the unusually effective Hulu advertising service we’ve built and will continue to innovate.” About 25 million DVRs, Blu-ray players, game consoles and other devices can receive streamed videos from Hulu Plus, but Kilar says that will “grow aggressively over the balance of 2011.” Read More »

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Will Hulu Be Sold? Mystery Bidder Makes An Offer As Broadband Service Struggles To Compete With Netflix

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday June 21, 2011 @ 4:47pm PDTTags: Amazon, Comcast, Disney, FCC, Google, Hulu, Hulu Plus, NBCU, News Corp

Word is spreading that Hulu has received a buyout offer and is taking it seriously. The Wall Street Journal’s hearing the same thing according to a report on its web site that sources “people familiar with the matter.” Although details … Read More »

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Miramax Adds Films To Hulu Service

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday June 1, 2011 @ 8:38am PDTTags: Digital Distribution, Hulu, Hulu Plus, Miramax

The new Miramax continues to make digital deals for its movies. Today, the company announced a multiyear agreement with Hulu that will make its films available on the ad-supported streaming service, as well as to subscribers at Hulu Plus. … Read More »

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Hulu Launches “Plus” Subscription Service

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday June 29, 2010 @ 11:53am PDTTags: Hulu, Hulu Plus, Hulu Plus Subcription Service, New Media, Online Content Movie TV
Nellie Andreeva

hulu460Hulu’s long-rumored paid service is now a reality as the online content hub has just launched Hulu Plus. A monthly fee of $9.99 allows subscribers to get season passes to more than 40 current series, including Glee, Modern Family, House, Saturday … Read More »

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Report That CBS Joining Hulu “Overblown”

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday June 24, 2010 @ 3:09pm PDTTags: Big Media, CBS, Hulu, Hulu Plus, Hulu TV, Hulu Viacom, Internet, Internet TV, TV

hulu smallInsiders are telling Deadline that the Bloomberg report claiming final broadcast network holdout CBS is joining Hulu as soon as this fall on a non-exclusive basis are “overblown”. Yes, there are talks going on between CBS with Hulu which already … Read More »

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