Hulu UK launch delayed until 2010?

Posted by David Walker on Tue 25 Aug 2009

But company close to securing ITV deal

It was all set for a September launch, but now it seems that Hulu's online TV goodness will not hit the UK until 2010.

The reason? Simple, there just isn't enough British-made TV to stream, with the company failing to secure any agreements with UK-based broadcasters. So rather than go ahead with purely imported US shows, a decision has been made to delay.

According to the Daily Telegraph, it's only a temporary blip, with a 'semi-exclusive deal' lined up with ITV in exchange for equity in the company. It went on to quote a 'source close to the US company', who said: 'Once ITV is on board, Hulu only needs one more UK broadcaster’s content for launch. It will probably go after a deal with BBC Worldwide, which is not signing exclusive arrangements with anyone and then secure some content from its parent companies. This will give it enough material to launch and probably take three to four months after its first deal with ITV. So you’re hopefully looking at a January 2010 launch.'

In addition, Hulu hasn't yet pitched the products to commercial bodies in the UK either, a vital part of the free, ad-supported service. According to Alex Randall, group trading director for Isobar, the digital arm of the Aegis group: 'To my knowledge Hulu has no presence in the marketplace or a dedicated UK sales team in place. It will need to present to the media agencies at least two months in advance of launch, in order to get on our clients’ schedules. Plus it may be a big success story in the US, but it’s not a working brand here and will need to sell hard.'

So it looks like no Hulu in 2009. But at least it will be here when traditional TV gets really bad after the Christmas season, even if you will have to gather round the PC screen to watch it.

Link: Hulu (via Daily Telegraph)

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