ITV Snub Hulu Deal To Concentrate On Their Own Online TV Website
Like a dagger in Hulu’s UK ambitions, TV network ITV want to go it alone online. The news is bad for Hulu, who it is beleived had a deal with previous ITV chairman Michael Grade to incorporate programming in the UK Hulu launch. ITV director of online and interactive, Ben McOwen Wilson said at the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit on Thursday that ITV would be concentrate on driving traffic to its own VOD operation, the ITV Player, rather than form alliances with third-party operators.
ITV want to concentrate on its own online tv service
That news is also a blow to aggregators such as Youtube, Seesaw and others who were hoping that the UK’s largest free-to-air commercial broadcaster would allow streaming rights. Wilson said:- “We have no plans at present to do any deals with YouTube. We are following an ITV Player-led solution because we want to push our own platform as hard as we can. We enjoyed 180% growth in terms of usership of ITV Player last year.”
He added that:- “Hulu is a major success in the US but the UK TV market is a different place. It is much more consolidated, which mean there are fewer online locations than in the US, which users need to visit to get access to their favourite content – therefore there is less need for aggregators.” Seems that some US companies agree after the removal of tv content from Hulu by Viacom
Youtube and SeeSaw currently have a deal with rival networks Channel 4 and Five, who have already signed non-exclusive VOD deals with the video giant. Are ITV right? There may be less websites that you need to visit, but surely viewers would rather see it all from the one place! See the current list of UK catch up tv services
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[...] Like a dagger in Hulu’s UK ambitions, TV network ITV want to go it alone online. The news is bad for Hulu, who it is beleived had a deal with previous ITV chairman Michael Grade to incorporate programming in the UK Hulu launch. ITV director of online and interactive, Ben McOwen Wilson said at the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit on Thursday that ITV would be concentrate on driving traffic to its own VOD operation, the ITV Player, rather than form alliances with third-party operators. View the Original article [...]