LAS VEGAS – According to solid sources here on the show floor at the National Association of Broadcasters annual convention, the folks at Hulu, which has rapidly become the number one place for Americans to watch full TV shows and movies on the web, is in talks with Canadian broadcasters so it can open up the site to Canadian viewers.
Hulu is owned by News Corp. (Fox), Disney (ABC), NBC Universal and Providence Equity Partners and since its launch in 2007 has rapidly gained tens of millions of viewers. In fact, in a session we attended this week at NAB on the future of mobile TV, IBM’s Saul Burman noted that in October of 2009 Hulu had more unique visitors (42.5 million) than the top two U.S. cablecos (Comcast and Time Warner Cable) have combined customers (37 million).
No one would talk on the record about Hulu’s plans for Canadian web users, or when it might come to fruition, but one senior Canadian private broadcaster we talked to said it’s just a matter of time that this will happen and if the Canadian broadcasters don’t climb on board and come to an agreement around their Canadian copyrights for American programming, Hulu would go around them. Since it is owned by three major U.S. broadcasters, one can imagine a scenario where it could simply retain digital rights to the U.S. programming, keeping the most popular shows on Hulu only for Canadians (which would then de-value the Canadian broadcasters’ much emptier video portals).
Right now, because the rights for shows like Family Guy, Lost, and The Office are owned in Canada by Global, CTV and Citytv, Canadians can not watch those shows on Hulu. We are blocked. Canadians can turn to their broadcasters’ web sites however.
Hulu, though dwarfed in pure usage by video giant YouTube, is a fantastic place to watch full TV episodes and movies and has been lauded for its video quality, speed and user interface. It would be a great place to watch Canadian content, too, for that matter – which Hulu would likely want, too. This would be a boon to Cancon creators who could then see their shows delivered to a much larger marketplace.
The portal has fast become a formidable force and since it’s owned by the very companies Canada’s private broadcasters purchase much of their prime time programming from, Canadian private broadcasters may have no choice but to accept whatever terms are given to them.
Here in the States, popular shows can be found on Hulu and on the home broadcasters’ web sites for viewing, all of which is supported by advertising. Other sites, like CBS-owned TV.com, seamlessly link those looking for shows from competing broadcasters right to the other sites hosting the programs.
Canadian broadcasters have been adding shows to the likes of citytv.com. ctv.ca and globaltv.com, for Canadians who miss the original airing of some of their favourite shows, but Hulu, as we noted here last year, has global ambitions and Canada would be just a tiny part of that.
No one of Hulu, or our press contacts at CTV, Citytv, or CanWest would comment.
More to come.
