NBCU Terminates TV Streaming Deal with Hulu
NBCUniversal has terminated its contract with streaming service Hulu, TheWrap has learned.
“With the proliferation of streaming services entering the marketplace, we have long anticipated changes to our third-party content offering and over the past few years have increased our investment in original content, including popular and award-nominated titles like ‘Only Murders in the Building,’ ‘Dopesick,’ ‘Reservation Dogs,’ ‘How I Met Your Father,’ and the Academy Award-nominated ‘Summer of Soul,'” a Hulu spokesperson said in a statement obtained by TheWrap after the news broke. “As a leading destination for breakthrough storytelling, we continue to transform Hulu into an exclusive home for stories from across The Walt Disney Company and beyond to bring our viewers even more premium content led by Hulu Originals and next-day television programming.”
According to Variety, the change won’t officially occur until late September of 2022, including library titles and next-day streaming rights to NBC hits like “Saturday Night Live,” “The Voice” and “Law & Order: Organized Crime.”
However, the report goes on to state that some NBCU shows will remain on Hulu for a while longer, including “Law & Order: SVU,” “This Is Us,” “The Mindy Project,” “30 Rock,” “Will & Grace,” “Friday Night Lights” and “Parenthood.” Late last year, NBCU international series added to Hulu include “Bloods” and “Creamerie.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported plans for the streaming shift in Feb.
NBCU and parent company Comcast have ended this partnership in order to reclaim some of their own shows and place them on their own streaming service Peacock, which has struggled to keep paying subscribers. Comcast holds a 33 percent stake in Hulu, with the remaining majority share under Disney’s ownership, which they are expected to sell in the coming years.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Peacock has shared much of NBCU’s catalog with Hulu since it launched the streaming service in 2020. By pulling that content back, the shows will become exclusive to Peacock, potentially making Hulu less valuable to some subscribers and Peacock a more desirable option for others.”