I tell you, “streaming content is making cable TV non-essential” is fast becoming one of the more prevalent tropes in Tech Report coverage. Soon, it will join the ranks of hall-of-famers like “corporations have dangerously bad security” and “you need to learn about spectrum”. Some shows from Hulu are making the leap to regular old TV after Hulu signed an exclusive deal to make Fremantle media the distributor of Hulu shows around the world, except in the United States and Japan.
The announcement came on the same day Morgan Spurlock’s Hulu series A Day in the Life returns for a second season.
Instead, Hulu hopes to establish a different pattern: The site could become a kind of testbed for pioneering content like Spurlock’s show that then gets picked up by traditional TV networks. A Day in the Life isn’t the first show to make this transition: Hulu secured the exclusive U.S. rights for the dark superhero comedy Misfits last summer. The show quickly took off on Hulu and became the most-viewed show on the site for several weeks in a row. Its success on Hulu played a big role in the decision to adapt the show for U.S. audiences.
This kind of testbed role is also one reason why Hulu isn’t insisting on worldwide exclusivity — and the flip side is that the site can actually generate revenue in markets where it isn’t present yet. Revenue that can then be funneled back into original productions. “It makes more money for our producers and it helps us to make more (original content),” Forssell said.
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