In terms of new content, Hulu has secured exclusive US streaming VoD rights to Ron Howard’s feature documentary, “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week”, debuting in cinemas and on Hulu this autumn. It will be the first documentary feature to premiere exclusively on Hulu following its theatrical run. The film will launch under the new Hulu Documentary Films arm. Hulu also announced that it has bought rights to Season 2 of The Path and Season 5 of The Mindy Project.
In addition, Hulu announced that it has partnered with interactive ad company BrightLine to be the first streaming service to deliver interactive advertising units built exclusively for connected TVs. Havas Media is the exclusive charter agency for the new product set to launch this summer.
Hulu also will collaborate with Nielsen to enable digital ad measurement through Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings across living room platforms from Roku, PlayStation, Xbox, Apple TV and all Hulu-enabled players. The partnership will enable Hulu to deliver accurate viewership measurements beyond the PC.
Hulu will also provide increased advertising effectiveness insights and tools through a partnership with market research firm Millward Brown. IPG Mediabrands’ Magna Global unit will be the beta partner for the initiative to deliver studies, research papers and statistics including brand affinity metrics for advertisers across OTT viewing environments.
Separately, Hopkins confirmed to the New York Times that Hulu plans to create a service combining both live and recorded programming from a reduced bundle of broadcast and cable channels. Executives with knowledge of the plans had said the service was expected to cost around USD 40 a month and that Hulu was close to signing agreements for broadcast and cable channels from Disney and 21st Century Fox, which owns Hulu along with NBCUniversal. Questions that still have not been decided include what channels will be included, the service’s price, and whether viewers would be able to skip through ads or pay for an ad-free version.
