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While not everybody has made the jump to cutting the cord from cable companies and relying strictly on streaming content services, many people have been getting their fix of TV shows and movies from streaming services like Hulu for quite some time. Hulu has been around since late 2007, offering access to an array of shows online or on various devices – usually with commercials or ads – and working to upset traditional broadcast and cable subscriptions. At a conference on Wednesday, January 4th, Hulu announced that they have finally reached a deal with hold-out CBS Corp. in its efforts to continuously add new content.
CBS Corp. is behind some of the most popular television shows available, with hit shows including NCIS, The Big Bang Theory, and 60 Minutes. Unfortunately, new episodes and entire recent seasons of CBS Corp’s more popular shows will not be made available, as the company plans to keep those as exclusives. However, sports fans will love that the company’s broadcast games have been reported to be headed to Hulu. NFL games, the NCAA Division One Basketball Championship, and CBS Sports Network will all be accessible via the streaming service. All of the content in question is to be offered as an add-on to Hulu’s live streaming service, meaning it will be an additional cost for those looking to add it. For those not wanting to pay for cable or for CBS Corp’s subscription services separately from other services they may already have, any shows being added to their current streaming services is probably great news.
However, for consumers looking to really consolidate the number of apps they need to install to watch their favorite shows, this may only represent a minor victory. There is, after all, something of a caveat. CBS Corp. does have its own subscription services and Android apps. Perhaps partially because of that, at least the newer seasons of its popular series – as mentioned above – will not make it to the Hulu platform. Hulu is owned by direct competitors to CBS Corp. – such as Time Warner Inc., Comcast Corp., Walt Disney Corp., and Twenty-First Century Fox – so it makes good business sense that CBS would hold off on going all-in with this deal. That said, this is still a huge step for a company that has, so far, avoided placing its content on any platforms external to its own. This addition to Hulu’s services is expected to be incorporated sometime in 2017, and the cost of Hulu’s up-and-coming CBS add-on service has not yet been announced.