Hulu

Hulu grew out of a plan by News Corporation, Fox’s parent company, and NBCNBCNBC (National Broadcasting Company) is an American national commercial broadcast television network. It was founded by RCA in 1926, began as a radio network and later developed television. With ABC and CBS it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it passed to General Electric with RCA in 1986, merged with Universal to form NBCUniversal in 2004, has been controlled by Comcast since 2011, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry Universal to run an online video service together. NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker said it began out of frustration that others were using their video online to build businesses; the plan was announced in March 2007, with AOLAOLAOL is an American internet brand offering a news portal, email, and membership services. Its history dates to an online-services company founded in 1985.Open the full entry, MSN, Yahoo and MySpace named as distribution partners. Providence Equity Partners then invested $100 million for a 10% stake in the joint venture and joined the board as an independent voice.⁠[1][1][1][1][2][2]

Former Amazon executive Jason Kilar agreed in late June 2007 to become chief executive. The venture initially used the placeholder name “NewCo.” before being named Hulu, and it launched in beta two months after the name was announced.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 2008, Hulu.com launched, offering television programs to viewers for free with advertising support; Hulu marks March 10 as the anniversary of its public launch.⁠[3][3]

On April 30, 2009, Disney’s ABCABCABC (American Broadcasting Company) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It grew out of NBC’s Blue radio network, took its name after becoming independent in 1943, developed into a national television network after merging with United Paramount Theatres in 1953, was acquired by Capital Cities in 1985, and has been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 1996. With CBS and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks, and it is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry Enterprises announced that it was joining Hulu, whose partners until then were NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners; programs from Disney channels such as ABC, SoapNet and ABC Family, as well as some Disney films, would come to Hulu. Disney President and CEO Robert Iger, Disney Media Networks Co-Chair Anne Sweeney and Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy Kevin Mayer joined Hulu’s board.⁠[4][4][4]

In 2010, Hulu launched the subscription service Hulu Plus, giving viewers access to full seasons of some shows and bringing the service to many device platforms for the first time. The same year, Hulu explored an initial public offering but ultimately backed away.⁠[3][3][2]

In August 2011, Hulu launched its first original program, A Day in the Life; in September it reached one million subscribers and launched a subscription video service in Japan. In 2011, Hulu considered selling itself and entertained suitors including Yahoo, Google and Dish before deciding not to sell; its revenue that year was $420 million.⁠[3][3][5][2][2]

In October 2012, Providence Equity Partners sold its Hulu stake back to Hulu’s media owners for about $200 million, exercising an option to redeem its shares at twice its investment, leaving NBC Universal, Fox and Disney as Hulu’s only investors.⁠[2][2][2]

In 2013, Hulu’s owners explored a sale of the whole company for the second time before deciding in July to keep it and pledging to invest $750 million to grow the business; after an exodus of senior executives and a period under an interim CEO, the owners named Mike Hopkins, formerly head of distribution at Fox Networks, chief executive that fall.⁠[5][5][6]

In February 2014, Nippon Television Network agreed to acquire Hulu’s Japanese business for an undisclosed amount, marking Nippon TV’s entry into subscription video on demand; Hulu separately licensed its brand and technology to a Nippon TV subsidiary to continue the service.⁠[5][5][5]

In July 2015, Showtime became the first premium network add-on offered on Hulu; in September, Hulu launched a commercial-free subscription plan.⁠[3][3]

In August 2016, Time Warner acquired a 10% stake in Hulu for $583 million in cash, implying a valuation of nearly $6 billion; afterward Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Disney and Fox each held 30%. Under the deal, Turner networks such as TNT, TBS and CNNCNNCNN (Cable News Network) is an Atlanta-based news organization founded by Ted Turner on June 1, 1980, as the world’s first 24-hour television news channel. It has been owned in turn by Turner Broadcasting System, Time Warner, AT&T and Warner Bros. Discovery, became part of Skydance Corporation along with Warner Bros. Discovery in October 2026, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry would join the live television service Hulu planned to launch the following year. Hulu reached 12 million subscribers that year.⁠[7][7][7][3]

In May 2017, Hulu launched its live television service, Live TV, combining live channels and an on-demand library in a single service. In September, Hulu became the first streaming service to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, with The Handmaid’s Tale.⁠[3][3]

In October 2017, Randy Freer, president and COO of Fox Networks Group, succeeded Mike Hopkins, who left to become chairman of Sony Pictures Television, as Hulu’s chief executive, based at its Los Angeles headquarters. Under Hopkins, Hulu doubled its revenue and tripled its valuation.⁠[6][6][6][6]

On March 20, 2019, The Walt Disney Company completed its acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox, whose assets included a 30% stake in Hulu; Disney’s ownership of Hulu rose to 60% and it began consolidating Hulu’s results.⁠[8][8][8]

In April 2019, Hulu bought back AT&TAT&TAT&T (AT&T Inc.) is a telecommunications company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its predecessor was SBC Communications, a regional holding company created in the 1984 breakup of the Bell System; SBC merged with the original AT&T Corp. in 2005 and adopted its name, and it has since operated a nationwide wireless network and fiber broadband, at one time also owning DIRECTV and WarnerMedia.Open the full entry’s 9.5% stake, raising Disney’s holding to 67%, with NBCUniversal owning the remaining 33%. On May 14, 2019, Disney and Comcast announced that Disney would assume full operational control of Hulu immediately; in return, the companies entered into a put/call agreement on NBCUniversal’s 33% stake under which, as early as January 2024, Comcast could require Disney to buy the stake at its fair market value and Disney could require it to be sold, with Disney guaranteeing a minimum total equity value for Hulu of $27.5 billion. Comcast also agreed to extend Hulu’s license of NBCUniversal content and the Hulu Live carriage agreement until late 2024. At the time, Hulu had more than 28 million customers in the U.S.⁠[9][8][9][9][9][9][9]

On January 31, 2020, eight months after taking full control, Disney integrated Hulu into its Direct-to-Consumer & International (DTCI) unit led by Kevin Mayer, placing Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu under the same centralized leadership; Hulu CEO Randy Freer stepped down, and the heads of Hulu’s distribution, sales, marketing and other operations began reporting directly to the corresponding DTCI business leads.⁠[10][10][10][10]

On November 1, 2023, NBC Universal notified Disney that it was exercising its right to require Disney to buy its 33% stake at the greater of Hulu’s fair value or the $27.5 billion guaranteed floor; the put/call process had been moved up from January 2024 to the fall of 2023. In December 2023, Disney paid NBCU about $8.6 billion, reflecting the floor value less NBCU’s unpaid capital contributions, and the companies began an appraisal process to determine Hulu’s final value.⁠[11][11][11][12][11][13]

On December 6, 2023, Disney+ added a Hulu tile to its homepage, letting subscribers to both services watch most of Hulu’s original and licensed series and films inside Disney+; the feature was in beta, with the official launch planned for March 2024. Disney CEO Robert Iger had said in May 2023 that Disney+ and Hulu would be combined into one app.⁠[13][13][13][13]

On March 27, 2024, Hulu on Disney+ officially launched in the U.S., bringing Hulu titles into Disney+’s personalized recommendations and collections and pitching the two-service bundle to Disney+-only subscribers; Disney+ and Hulu remained available as standalone subscriptions.⁠[14][14][14]

On June 9, 2025, the contractual appraisal of Hulu’s equity fair value was completed: Disney’s appraiser had valued Hulu below the floor, NBCU’s appraiser substantially above it, and the final value took into account a third appraiser, requiring Disney to pay NBCU an additional $438.7 million, with the transaction to close by July 24, 2025; had NBCU’s appraiser’s valuation been adopted, Disney would have owed about $5 billion more. The companies had entered into confidential arbitration over the appraisal process in May 2024. In total, Disney paid about $9 billion for the stake, implying an overall valuation for Hulu of about $27 billion.⁠[11][11][11][11][11][15][15]

After closing, Disney owned 100% of Hulu and will pay NBCU 50% of the tax benefits from amortizing the purchase of NBCU’s stake over roughly 15 years. Disney CEO Robert A. Iger said completing the acquisition paved the way for a deeper integration of Hulu’s general entertainment content with Disney+ and ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product; Comcast said Hulu had generated nearly $10 billion in proceeds for it.⁠[16][16][11][15]

On August 6, 2025, Disney announced that it would fully integrate Hulu into Disney+, launching a unified app experience in 2026 and sunsetting the standalone Hulu app; Hulu would not go away but would become Disney’s global general entertainment brand, replacing the Star brand in Disney+ international markets. Disney also said it would stop reporting quarterly paid subscribers and average revenue per user for Disney+ and Hulu starting with the first quarter of fiscal 2026.⁠[17][17][17][17]

As of September 27, 2025, the end of Disney’s fiscal 2025, Hulu had an estimated 64.1 million paid subscribers based on Disney’s internal management reports, including 59.7 million for SVOD Only and 4.4 million for Live TV + SVOD, compared with 52.0 million a year earlier. In fiscal 2025, average monthly revenue per paid subscriber was $12.36 for Hulu SVOD Only and $99.85 for Live TV + SVOD.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][16]

Beginning October 8, 2025, Hulu replaced Star in international markets as the global general entertainment brand on Disney+; Disney said the change was in preparation for a fully integrated unified app the following year, and the Disney+ homepage added tabs for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN along with a “For You” page.⁠[18][18][18][16]

On October 29, 2025, Disney combined Hulu Live TV’s carriage agreements, subscription agreements, advertising and sponsorship agreements and the intellectual property related to the “Live TV” brand with the publicly traded virtual pay-TV distributor Fubo, taking about 70% of the combined company, with Fubo’s shareholders keeping about 30%; together they had nearly 6 million subscribers in North America. Hulu + Live TV and Fubo continue as separate services; under the agreement, Disney is the exclusive distributor of the Hulu Live TV service for five years and pays Fubo a wholesale fee, while also handling its marketing and advertising sales for both services.⁠[19][19][20][20][19][19]

As of June 2026, antitrust litigation involving the transaction was ongoing: a putative class action on behalf of certain fuboTV subscribers (the Unger Action) alleges that Disney’s bundling and other practices violate antitrust law and seeks an order requiring Disney to segregate or divest its interests in Fubo and Hulu, or alternatively business assets relating to Fubo and Hulu + Live TV; the case has been transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.⁠[19][19][19][19]

On February 5, 2026, the Hulu app on the Nintendo Switch stopped working at Disney’s direction. On March 18, 2026, Josh D’Amaro succeeded Robert A. Iger as Disney’s chief executive.⁠[21][21][22]

Starting May 19, 2026, Disney+ and Hulu bundle subscribers could sync their Hulu profiles, including watch history, watchlists and recommendations, to Disney+; eligible Hulu-only subscribers could sign in to Disney+ with their Hulu credentials to watch Hulu content plus a small sampling of Disney+ and ESPN content. Features such as live channels and add-on programming packages remained available only in the Hulu app at the time and were planned to come to Disney+ later; a Disney spokesperson said the standalone Hulu subscription would remain available in the U.S. and that there were “no current plans to sunset the Hulu app.”⁠[23][23][23][23]

An internal Disney streaming document that surfaced in late May 2026 laid out a multi-phase plan called “Project Gemini” to move Hulu’s content and features into Disney+, decommission Hulu’s technology stack and app once all users had transitioned, and complete the unified experience by year-end; Disney responded that it had no current plans to sunset the app.⁠[24][24][24][24]

In its August 5, 2026, third-quarter letter to shareholders, Disney said it had passed an important milestone in app unification during the quarter, allowing both Hulu standalone and bundle subscribers to link profiles and watch history and manage subscriptions on Disney+, and listed completing the integration of Hulu and Disney+ among its near-term priorities.⁠[25][25]

Season 18 of Shark Tank, the reality series on Disney-owned ABC, premiered on ABC on September 30, 2026, with MrBeast and Jeff Housenbold as guest Sharks in the first episode; episodes stream on Hulu the day after they air.⁠[26][26][26]

Hulu is Disney’s domestic direct-to-consumer service, offering general entertainment content from Disney’s studios and content licensed from third parties, with on-demand subscriptions with or without advertising and Hulu Live TV, which can be paired with either on-demand plan and includes live streams of cable and broadcast networks; some ABC, Freeform and FX programs arrive on Hulu the day after their television airing. Subscribers can also add premium services such as Max, Cinemax, Starz and Paramount’s Paramount+ with Showtime. Hulu is available on its own or in various bundles with Disney+ and ESPN.⁠[16][16][16][16][16][3]

Hulu: Official website: https://www.hulu.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[3]

Hulu Press: Official website: https://press.hulu.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[3]

The Walt Disney Company: Official website: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[18]