Hey Hulu, Disney is swinging toward Youtube
Disney are looking for some internet TV action and have struck a deal with the mighty Youtube to distribute TV content from ESPN sports highlights and ABC news updates. Disney are hoping the deal will net them advertising revenue from YouTube, a site that has 100 million monthly visitors.” Disney would keep the majority of the proceeds, YouTube have commented.
Currently the deal will mean Disney is serving YouTube with just ‘shorts’ and not full length TV shows or movies, which makes it just a promotional tool that will benefit ABC but may have trouble attracting advertisers.The companies are also in discussions regarding a full episode deal that would stream ABC and other Disney content onto YouTube instead of NBC/News Corp’s joint venture Hulu. However it is known that Disney are also in discussions with aforementioned Hulu about a similar deal.
Disney may be hedging its bets because whilst Hulu has grown massively it’s still a long way behind YouTube in viewers. And whilst both sites are yet to make a profit, Disney has a decision to make between the short term guarantee that would come from a YouTube tie up versus the longer term tie in that comes with distributing exclusively for Hulu. Disney may also be looking for an equity stake in it’s rivals website in exchange for full content.
The deal with YouTube and talks with Hulu are part of Disney’s online TV strategy. ABC, according to some has grown as big as it can on its own. The YouTube deal shows a shift in the ABC internet TV strategy, which had concentrated on bringing viewers to it’s own website and those of its TV affiliates. Disney seems to have chosen to make partnerships with other websites to provide greater distribution for its content.
A longer term deal with YouTube would most probably make use of an embedded Disney player. Whilst a deal with Hulu would probably deliver content through Hulu’s internal TV player system.
Whatever happens, the TV sites are slowly converging. Hey we may soon just need to visit one TV site.
Incoming TV searches:
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