What, exactly, is Hulu?
For years, its core brand identity in a nutshell has been: Watch the TV you know and love, streamed over the internet. Right now, analysts say, Hulu's biggest advantage in the streaming wars is that it serves up most of the scripted programming released on broadcast networks. Yes, it has thrown originals into the mix. But the Hulu value proposition remains tied to traditional TV, as reinforced by its introduction of a live-TV package four years ago.
Over the next few years, Hulu — now controlled solely by Disney — will face an existential crisis on the content front that will amplify the pressure for it to produce a regular cadence of original hits, as it is hoping to establish with "Only Murders in the Building."
Starting in 2022, NBCUniversal will have the right to cancel most of its content-licensing agreements with Hulu and could decide to bring its programming exclusively to Peacock. Analysts say ViacomCBS (which has launched Paramount Plus) and Fox Corp. (which owns free, ad-supported streamer Tubi) also are likely to claw their programs back from the streamer.
Still, compared with Disney's bigger streaming mouth to feed — Disney Plus — Hulu is hampered by its U.S.-only confines in terms of payback on content investments. Internationally, Hulu originals produced within the Disney General Entertainment Content group, including "Only Murders in the Building," "Dopesick," "Dollface" and "The D'Amelio Show," are distributed on Disney Plus as part of the new Star general entertainment offering. But the international rights for some Hulu originals are retained by third-party studios. The upshot: Because Hulu never launched overseas, owing to its thorny multi-owner structure, Disney can't as easily amortize Hulu content spending across a global footprint.
"Only Murders in the Building" might yield Hulu a nice crop of new viewers. But the problems for the streamer are bigger than any single show. "They need to increase the frequency of the big-buzz hits coming out of Hulu," says Joe McCormack, senior telecom and media analyst at Third Bridge. "You can't just ride 'Handmaid's Tale.'"
