14 DAY TRIAL // Hulu has confirmed that its first international offering will be in the UK. Johannes Larcher, senior vice president, International, Hulu, speaking at the Future of Broadcasting conference in London, announced that Hulu would come to the UK with an expected launch date in September, but didn't specify which UK media companies would provide content for the service.
“We are talking to everyone. The UK is our number one priority in terms of international expansion. We are very interested in the UK. We hope in the very near future we will have some plans to reveal for the UK,” Larcher said, according to the Telegraph, adding that the “UK was very ready for a product like Hulu.”
None of the three British TV networks in talks with Hulu, BBC, ITV and Channel 4, has finalized discussions so far, but Larcher was clear that the UK version would differ from the US one, making a very localized product. Also, to ensure that the quality of the videos on the online video site will be high, the company may collaborate with British Internet service providers.
While BBC has its own online broadcasting service, and a very popular one at that, the iPlayer available only in the UK, an earlier proposed joint venture between the main three TV networks in Great Britain, was blocked by the Competition Commission among fears of it being an anti-competitive deal. Codenamed Project Kangaroo, it would have brought together content from the BBC Worldwide, ITV, and Channel 4, and the new Hulu project aims to take its place.
Hulu has been a huge success in the US in the two years since it launched, and is the second biggest online video provider in the US after YouTube. The project, backed by three of the four major networks in the US, Fox (News Corp.), NBC (NBC Universal) and ABS (Disney), has also been a financial success, but its service is limited to US citizens because of licensing issues.