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Creator / Hulu

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"The following article is brought to you with limited commercial interruption by Trope Co."

Hulu, an evil plot to destroy the world, started as a free, ad-supported streaming video site that plays full episodes, clips, and whole movies on October 29, 2007. For many years it was a joint corporate venture involving companies such as Turner Broadcasting System, Fox, ABC and NBC, with Fox and NBC being the founding members of the venturenote  and carries content from all four, plus their sundry cable networks and motion picture studios, as well as various other providers. It also carries some older content from CBS, such as NUMB3RS and Medium (originally an NBC show, but made by CBS and later moved that network). Essentially, it's broadcast television's answer to Netflix.

Because of international distribution rights, it can only be viewed on computers, phones and other smart devices physically located in America and Japan (the Japanese website is owned by Nippon TV and is starkly different from its US counterpart.) That is, unless you're behind 7 proxies with one of them in the right country. And only on computers, as Hulu specifically blocks out all set-top boxes and game consoles from accessing their programming through their respective web interfaces, ensuring that viewers otherwise watch the shows on a television, not with a web browser connected to a television (laptops and monitors with HDMI outputs notwithstanding)...

... unless you buy a subscription plan (formerly called Hulu Plus) an even evil(er) plot to destroy the world, which opens up access to most game consoles, Internet-enabled televisions, streaming devices, and Blu-ray players using a special app, though some programming remains restricted to computer-only. However, it should be noted that even if you have a subscription, you still can't skip the commercials, without paying an additional fee. At times, you can mark which ones are relevant to you and thus make them more bearable to watch. Ad breaks on a subscription plan are shorter, and kids's show targeted at younger audiences (such as Guess with Jess or The Hive) and nearly all feature films will not have them.

Also, if you have a subscription, you also avoid many channel's "eight-day block", which forces viewers to wait a full week before watching a new episode of a program online, unless they have a cable subscription that includes that channel. And all available content is available 24/7, as opposed to the free service which only includes a block of episodes of a show that rotates over time.

Oh, and see all those series down there? If it's an American series that isn't currently airing, expect there to be at least one complete season available to see. In many cases, entire series can be viewed.

If it's an anime, chances are even higher that you'll have the whole series on hand, even if it's still airing. With professional subs. No more than 2 weeks behind Japan. Cue rejoicing followed by Archive Binge.

The service has incorporated more overseas (mostly British) content in the past few years, in an apparent effort to attract Anglophiles. Other overseas content has included non-Anglophone shows that were later remade in America, which can be easily promoted to curious fans of the American versions, such as Forbrydelsen (The Killing), Hatufim (Homeland), and The Bridge (2011) (The Bridge (US)). It has also co-invested in some British TV shows, including the Richard Corden series The Wrong Mans and the most recent season of The Thick of It starring Peter Capaldi, which, in-turn, become streaming exclusives to Hulu once they've been broadcast in the UK. (Hulu sometimes hypes them as 'Hulu Originals', which while they helped foot the bill, is stretching the truth a bit.) They show many limited-run or shorter-run series that are more adult and therefore less likely to appear on BBC America (like Misfits or Pramface), and also British soaps and reality shows, like Coronation Street and The Only Way Is Essex.

In 2014, in a significant deal with creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Hulu managed streaming of all South Park episodes. Where they used to be available for free via South Park Studios' own website, unedited, the episodes are now on a new site on Comedy Central's domain which is managed by Hulu. Older episodes are now bleeped for language and now have commercials inserted like other Hulu programming. When Season 18 of South Park premiered in September 2014, the entire show ceased being available at the old site and from that point now only 30 episodes are available for free on a rotating basis on Hulu (Hulu subscription subscribers, naturally, have access to the entire series). Needless to say, fans were not happy (The show left Hulu for HBO Max in June 2020 as part of a deal between the service and CC).

Then, in 2015, Hulu made a similar arrangement with Sony Pictures, spending $160 million dollars to become the exclusivenote  streaming home of Seinfeld. Starting in late June, the entire series became available to stream, for Hulu subscription members only. Previously, only selected episodes were available via Sony's free Crackle service. Hulu even streamed the episodes in their original NBC broadcast edits, instead of using the shorter edits seen on syndication and Crackle. Netflix (who'd spent $115 million in a similar arrangement for Friends) was approached by Sony first, but passed when Sony's asking price per-episode was deemed too high.note 

Like its rivals Netflix and Amazon Prime, it has also branched out into original programming, such as the animated show The Awesomes and the supernatural comedy Deadbeat. While Hulu at first didn't have a break-out hit like Netflix's House of Cards or Amazon Prime's Transparent, a couple of shows that debuted in 2015 got strong reviews and a fair amount of media attention: Difficult People, a show created by comedian Julie Klausner and produced by former SNL star Amy Poehler, that was originally was developed for USA Network, and Casual, produced by director Jason Reitman, which was Hulu's first series to be nominated for a Golden Globe award. Hulu also produced a miniseries based on the Stephen King novel 11/22/63, starring James Franco and co-produced by J. J. Abrams. In 2017 it finally got its own breakout series with The Handmaid's Tale, which also gave it the honor of being the first streaming service to get a Best Series Emmy.

Along with the Seinfeld deal, 2015 brought about several other major events:

In May, as Amazon has done for Ripper Street and Netflix did for Arrested Development, Hulu rescued The Mindy Project after it was cancelled, ordering 26 new episodes, and getting exclusive streaming rights for the previous 3 seasons. Hulu had been rumored to be a front-runner to rescue Community when it was cancelled by NBC, until it was picked up by Yahoo! Screen.

In June, Hulu entered an agreement with Showtime to manage their own HBO Now-style internet streaming service. As a by-product of the deal, all Showtime shows (like Californication and Penn & Teller: Bullshit!) that previously had been available on Hulu were removed. In an interesting promotional arrangement, Hulu subscribers can add the Showtime service to their existing Hulu Plus subscription at a 25% discount.

Finally, in August, Hulu unveiled a no commercials subscription option, that carries an additional $4 to $6 charge to a normal Hulu subscription. There are some shows (Grey's Anatomy and Once Upon a Time, for example) that will still show pre- and post-episode ads, but under the plan these shows are no longer interrupted by commercial breaks.

As of August 23rd, 2016, Hulu is now by subscription only.

On December 14, 2017, Disney announced that it would acquire Fox's stake in Hulu as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox's entertainment properties, giving Disney majority control of Hulu. The deal was finalized in March 2019, and in April of that year AT&T divested its 10% stake in the service. A few weeks later in May, Comcast and Disney announced that Comcast had relinquished its say in the operation of Hulu in exchange for a potentially above market-value buyout in 2024, giving Disney full ownership of the service; NBCU will no longer provide content to Hulu beginning September 2022. While Disney-owned content is largely being directed to the Disney+ streaming service and first-run 20th-branded film content is licensed to HBO for the time being (though said channel, along with HBO Max, is available as an add-on under Hulu), Hulu's new ownership is becoming increasingly apparent through a new crossover brand initiative with FX Networks, titled "FX on Hulu," which will see a large amount of new FX and FXX content premiere on Hulu just a day after airing on cable, and even some new FX-produced original series becoming Hulu exclusives (beginning with Alex Garland's Devs).note  It has also been announced that 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures will create films explicitly for the streamer, beginning with Searchlight's Summer of Soul in July 2021. Hulu has allowed some of its higher-profile third-party deals, such as Seinfeld and South Park, to be snatched by other services, though they have made no indication that they are abandoning third-party material entirely (They snatched the rights to Schitt's Creek in October 2022, a swipe from Netflix).

Coinciding with Disney's takeover of Hulu, it was also announced that an international rollout of the service was planned. However, in August 2020, Disney confirmed that the international counterpart for Hulu would instead be branded under STAR (named after Star India, another asset Disney purchased from Fox) due to the lack of the Hulu name's appeal outside the US and Japan, and would not feature any third-party content shown on the US service. Instead, the upcoming STAR service will feature content from the namesake Star India, Hulu original programming and content from Disney's non-branded studios including ABC, 20th Century Studios, FX, and most films from Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. In January 2021, it was revealed that most areas will receive STAR as a hub within Disney+ within the year, except for Latin America, where Star+ will be a separate service, and India and other territories with the combined Disney+ Hotstar platform. In 2023, Hulu began integrating into Disney+. However, Disney stated that the separate Hulu app experience will be available and a wider one-app rollout is scheduled for later in 2024. The wider rollout began on March 27th of that year with Disney+ receiving a new brand identity to go along with it.

    open/close all folders 

U.S. content providers include:

    The Walt Disney Company 

    Other providers 

Hulu Originals include:

Programs marked with a * have been removed from the service.

    Anime 
  • Sonic X (2010; exclusive US streaming rights to the uncut Japanese subbed version)

     Documentaries 

     Films - Live Action 

Released by 20th Century Studios

Released by Searchlight Pictures

Other

     Live-Action TV 

FX On Hulu

     Web Video 

     Western Animation 

     Hulu Japan 
Hulu Japan is owned by Nippon TV and features little to none of the American Hulu's original programming, much of which is carried in Japan by Star on Disney+. In turn, none of the Hulu Japan Originals are available in the US version.

Tropes pertaining to Hulu include:

  • Banned Episode: Because of heightened concerns over systemic racism (due to the George Floyd protests in 2020), the following TV episodes have been pulled:
    • 30 Rock: "Believe in the Stars" and "Live from Studio 6H" (east and west coast version).
    • Family Guy: "Turban Cowboy" (which was already banned due to the Boston Marathon bombing, then came back before it got banned again)
      • Even before this, the episode "Partial Terms Of Endearment" was banned for its controversial subject matter.
    • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: "America’s Next Top Paddy’s Billboard Model Contest", "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth", "The Gang Recycles Their Trash", "The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6" and "Dee Day" (though episodes like "The Gang Gets Racist", "The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby", "The Gang Turns Black", and "Hero or Hate Crime?", which have more dubious racial content haven't been banned, nor has "The Gang Gets Quarantined" been banned because of the COVID-19 pandemic)
  • Channel Hop: Acquired Run (from Lionsgate), Happiest Season (from Tristar Pictures) and The United States vs. Billie Holiday (from Paramount) during the COVID-19 Pandemic due to theater closures. The service also hosted Searchlight Pictures' Nomadland alongside its theatrical release.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • With HBO Max in 2021, when the service came to an agreement with Disney to extend their US first pay-TV window rights to 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures films to the end of 2022 (rather than expiring mid-year). The deal also allowed HBO Max to accelerate the release of these films on their platforms, rather than waiting around 9 months from release; in exchange, however, HBO Max will share streaming rights to half of the Disney-owned slate with Disney+ and Hulu. The first film released under this arrangement was Ron's Gone Wrong, which premiered on both HBO Max and Disney+ the same date as its general home video release. A few months later, Nightmare Alley would premiere on HBO Max and Hulu before arriving on standard home video platforms.
    • Another case with HBO Max occurred when HBO Max and Hulu came to an arrangement to share streaming rights to Abbott Elementary, which is produced by Disney-owned 20th Television and HBO corporate sibling Warner Bros. Television.
  • Killer App:
    • The Handmaid's Tale gave Hulu an original series that can compete with Netflix, with Hulu's 2017 Emmy win raising the profile of the streaming service.
    • For the Occidental Otaku, Hulu has a good selection of anime, both simulcasts and older titles.
    • Many fans of Family Guy and Bob's Burgers admitted to getting subscriptions once said shows were pulled from Netflix as Hulu became the only major streaming service offering those shows.
  • Market-Based Title: As explained above, Star, due to the lack of appeal of the name Hulu outside the U.S. and Japan.
  • Network Decay: Hulu started out in October 2007 as a partnership between Disney (ABC), NBCUniversal (NBC) and News Corp. (Fox), later adding other partners (most notably Time Warner/WarnerMedia), in order to provide free, ad-supported streaming of recent episodes of those networks' series. In June 2010 they added Hulu Plus (a name they'd abandon in April 2015), an ad-supported subscription service which allowed access to full seasons, day-after access to current season content and more episodes of shows available. One month later they announced they were thinking of international expansion (which would happen in Japan under their name in September 2011, and in February 2021 in other regions under the Star name). In September 2015 they added "No Commercials" and "Limited Commercials" options. In August 2016 they spun off the original free service to Yahoo! View (which was discontinued in June 2019). In December 2017, Disney announced they bought News Corp. spinoff 21st Century Fox and, with it, its stake on Hulu. In April 2019 it was the turn of WarnerMedia and one month later NBCUniversal relinquished control and is planning to sell its share in 2024. (The latter has launched its own competitor, Peacock, which has its own free membership plan where one enjoy a partial selection of the library with limited ads.) Nowadays Hulu is one component of Disney's direct-to-consumer strategy, alongside Disney+ and ESPN+.
  • No Export for You: Possibly the most infamous example of this trope. Hulu is only available in United States and Japan. Furthermore, Hulu Originals are not available in any other country outside the US on simulcast, same for the Hulu Japan Originals not being available on the US Hulu version. However, due to the way companies distributes titles, some originals can reach their way months or years after a season was broadcasted in full. Starting to change with the advent of Star, at least for Disney-owned productions — however, Star largely follows Disney+'s weekly release strategy, meaning shows that get released all at once on Hulu can take months on Star.
  • Screwed by the Lawyers: While "FX on Hulu" is promoted in a way that implies all of the FX and FXX shows will be featured on the streamer, several are unavailable on the service due to existing agreements with other streaming services, similar to Disney+. Examples include Pose and American Crime Story (both of which streamed on Netflix until 2022, moving to Hulu in March) and The Americans (which streams on Prime Video). Others appear to have been deliberately left off the service, namely Louie (due to Louis C.K. owning half of the rights to the series as well as his sexual misconduct scandal).
  • What Could Have Been: After accepting High Fidelity and Love, Victor from Disney+, Hulu reciprocated the trade when its planned adaptation of The Mysterious Benedict Society was shifted to that service.

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