Hulu - History

History

The Hulu venture was announced in March 2007 with AOL, MSN, Facebook, Comcast, MySpace and Yahoo! planned as "initial distribution partners". Jason Kilar was named the CEO in June 2007. The name Hulu was chosen in late August 2007, when the website went live, with an announcement only and no content. It invited users to leave their email addresses for the upcoming beta test. In October, Hulu began the private beta testing by invitation, and later allowed users to invite friends. Hulu launched for public access in the United States on March 12, 2008. The first product to launch was the HULU Syndication network, which was designed and developed by the NBCUniversal team from New York, on 10-29-2007, followed by the Hulu.com destinations site.

Hulu began an advertising campaign during NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII with an initial ad starring Alec Baldwin titled "Alec in Huluwood". The ad intended to humorously reveal "the shocking secret behind Hulu", portraying the site as being an "evil plot to destroy the world" by suggesting that Baldwin is really an alien in disguise. Advertisements have since aired featuring Eliza Dushku, Seth MacFarlane, Denis Leary, and Will Arnett.

On April 30, 2009, Disney announced that it would join the venture, purchasing a 27% stake in Hulu.

At an industry conference on October 21, 2009, News Corporation Deputy Chairman Chase Carey stated that Hulu "needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business" and that it would likely start charging for at least some content by 2010. Carey's comment jibes with other News Corp. heads, including Rupert Murdoch who has expressed a desire to charge for content with a number of online units.

Early in 2010, Hulu chief executive Jason Kilar said the service has made a profit in two quarters, and that the company could top $100 million in revenue by summer 2010, more than its income for all of 2009. ComScore says monthly video streams reached 903 million in January 2010, over three times the figure for a year earlier, and second only to YouTube.

Hulu Plus, a monthly subscription service, was launched in beta (preview) on June 29, 2010 and officially launched on November 17, 2010. Like the free version of Hulu, the video available on Hulu Plus also contains commercials. However, it offers subscribers an expanded content library in the form of full seasons and more episodes of shows already available through Hulu. Hulu Plus is available on a wide range of platforms, including:

• Apple TV
• Blu-ray players (network-enabled)
• TiVo DVR boxes (Premiere, Premiere XL, and Premiere Elite models)
• Televisions (network-enabled Smart TVs)
• Smartphones
• Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 game consoles
• Roku Streaming Player
• WD TV Media Player

As of January 17, 2011, Hulu has streamed its own in-house web series The Morning After, a light-hearted pop-culture news show. It is produced by Hulu in conjunction with Jace Hall's HDFilms and stars Brian Kimmet and Ginger Gonzaga. Producing the show is a first for the company, which in the past has been primarily a content distributor.

Hulu has been identified as a possible candidate for an IPO by 2013. On August 16, 2010, a report revealed that Hulu is planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) which could value the U.S. video viewing site at more than $2 billion.

On June 21, 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported that an "unsolicited offer" caused Hulu to begin "weighing whether to sell itself."

Starting August 15, 2011, viewers of content from Fox and related networks will have to authenticate whether they subscribe to a paid cable or satellite service wherever Fox streams episodes, including Hulu, to be able to watch them the morning after the first airing. Non-subscribers will see those episodes delayed a week before they are viewable.

On October 13, 2011, Hulu and its owners have announced that they will not sell the video site after all. None of the bidders offered an amount that was satisfactory to its owners.

On October 28, 2011, Hulu announced that they had inked a five-year deal with The CW, giving the streaming site access to next-day content from five of the six major networks.

A little more than a year after the launch of Hulu Plus, the number of paying subscribers reaches 1.5 million paying subscribers.

On January 16, 2012, Hulu announced that it would be airing its first original script based program, titled Battleground, scheduled to air in February 2012. The program will air on Hulu's free web service rather than on Hulu Plus, their premium pay site. Battleground is described as a documentary style, political drama.

Hulu has decided to move into original programing. The Fashion Fund is now Hulu’s second series in less than a week. It is a six-part reality series, and the winner of the show will receive $300,000 to start their career.

It was reported that in 2011 Hulu made $420 million. The figure was $80 million short of the predicted revenue.

To continue with their original programming movement, Hulu announced there will be a total of seven original programs that are planned to air on their service. Battleground, Up To Speed, and a Day In The Life were already previously mentioned; however, on April 19, Hulu added four more shows to their list. Their four new shows are titled, We Got Next, The Awesomes, Don't Quit Your Daydream, and Flow. Some of these programs will start airing in 2012, while others will premiere over the next few years.

On May 21, 2012, Hulu announced it would be bringing star Kevin Smith to their line-up of original programming. Smith will be hosting a new show titled Spoilers, which will be a movie discussion show set to air during the summer of 2012.