Is Hulu the biggest media lost opportunity of all time? Or was it destined to be what it is?

This and lots of other questions about WarnerMediaDiscoveryScripps+

May 17, 2021

As I read the wild WarnerMedia/Discovery spinoff/merger news in real-time, here’s what I think about:

If this is about clout, and being able to compete with Netflix and everyone else in streaming, should we assume that HBO Max and Discovery+ get bundled or combined into one service? (putting aside whether that makes sense brand wise, which is a lot to put aside)
What’s next? Kim Masters from Hollywood Reporter says NBCU and ViacomCBS may want to combine -would that mean that Peacock and Paramount+ become one?
A few months ago, The Information’s Jessica Toonkel wrote about how NBCU and Viacom and maybe WarnerMedia would at some point have to think about bundling or combining streaming services if they wanted to get anywhere scale-wise.

All these crazy alliances and theoretical re-bundling has me thinking -didn’t you guys have a viable, somewhat scaled, already built and branded and popular platform in Hulu? Aren’t you all essentially trying to rebuild Hulu again, when it was your?

There are lots of reasons why Hulu never became something that made Netflix lose sleep- namely, it was a joint venture between rivals who were trying to kill each other every day and were never going to prioritize something that wasn’t ‘theirs.’ It’s actually a miracle that something that was at one point partially owned by Rupert Murdoch and Brian Roberts and Bob Iger and Jeff Bewkes actually worked at all.

(The Hulu ownership cast changes are confusing, but at different points, NBCU, Disney, Fox, WarnerMedia all had part of it and tried to sell it like 12 times).

But what if a decade ago, or even five years ago, these all these players had a stronger conviction about the media business’s future, and humility regarding how outgunned they would soon be? All the big broadcast and TV companies could have pumped serious money into Hulu, cranking up its original output way past a few nice curiosities each year (like Shrill or Handmaid’s). Hulu could be an absolute must-have, clear number 2, instead of just a solid but slow-growing contender (40 million. subsish) that is sitting inside of Disney, but understandable not the company’s priority compared to Disney+.

What if the big media CEOs had figured out a way to pool first-party data, to make advertising on Hulu sizzle even more, while still retaining some relationships with brands. Hulu is the dream these guys are chasing in many ways - it’s a subscription business that seems to support advertising quite nicely.

Instead of pumping billions into loss leaders like Peacock and Paramount+, and instead of simultaneously having to build up and brand AVOD services like Tubi (part of Fox) and Pluto (part of Viacom) and Xumo (Comcast) you’d be able to channel resources and efforts with far more branding impact. The hottest thing in the ad world right now is Connected TV advertising and Hulu basically invented it. They could have owned that space.

Of course, these things always come down to control - every big media company wants their OWN DTC brand, not something you share with competitors. Except that where this all seems to be headed anyway.

Anyway, it makes you wonder. Maybe the big media titans can get together and buy Hulu back from Disney? I know this is beyond complicated. But so are all these other mergers that will take six months to clear at best.

Next in Media

Discussion about this post