Hulu is an American video-on-demand service; the service is controlled by Disney (The Walt Disney Company).
The company was started in 2007 with the headquarter in the United States.
The service currently is limited to US viewers only. Though you can watch Hulu in the UK, Canada, Australia, or anywhere with a VPN, it is not officially operating in any region except the United States.
Hulu offers premium content, such as hit television shows and feature-length movies. You can start watching Hulu at $5.99 with add; however, you will have to upgrade if you want a commercial-free experience. Hulu also offers Live TV services with over 60 news, entertainment, and sports channels and unlimited access to Hulu’s on-demand streaming library for $54.99. Hulu currently has over 30 million subscribers. You can get it with ESPN+ as part of a Disney+ bundle for $13 a month in the US.
According to the new announcement made by the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, “Disney has the full operational control of Hulu following its acquisition of 21st Century Fox and subsequent deal with NBCU. This means that now all of Hulu’s plans will be directed by Disney, and they were thinking of working on direct-to-consumer operations. This was aimed to make Hulu available internationally. In the same announcement CEO of Disney mentioned, Hulu is thinking of expanding its service globally and planning to make Hulu available in more regions.
The CEO also mentioned: “We feel that we need to concentrate on those [Disney+ international] launches, and the marketing and the creation of a product for those. And then come in with Hulu, right after or soon after that.”
This clearly states that Hulu will be available in the global market in 2021. However, all of the statements of Bob Iger had no specific mentions about expanding to the UK. However, in my opinion, Hulu’s expansion plans will include the UK as it is one of the biggest regions to cover with reference to viewers.
As per the data, Netflix has around 11.5 million subscribers from the UK, whereas Amazon Prime has 7.9 million viewers in the region. This data states the UK is a big market for video streaming services, and surely Hulu will like to include this region in its international expansion. However, no specific mentions of the region have been stated yet by the CEO in his announcements.
Hulu All Over the World?
Hulu is a video-on-demand service as well as offers Live TV to its viewers. The service has expanded much since its arrival and currently has around 35 million subscribers. The service is growing rapidly in the US region, and after its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company, they are eyeing to get more subscribers. The shows and movies on Hulu are amazing, and it is expected that people worldwide will like the shows.
The international expansion of Hulu is thus expected to give it a major boost in viewers and subscriptions. However, to compete with giants like Netflix, they will have to produce more on-demand content. The region-specific strategies might work here, just like Netflix. It is expected that Hulu will gain more subscribers and viewers with its international expansion but only by making more shows that are on-demand or else it might be in danger as it will have to compete with giants like Netflix and Amazon.
