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Hulu has reportedly agreed a deal with Viacom to expand the amount of content it has exclusive rights to. Following the deal, users of Hulu’s services can expect access to ‘hundreds of episodes’ including exclusive access to some popular shows, such as Daria. For example, the deal has resulted in all five seasons of Daria now exclusively available through Hulu. Although there has yet to be an official announcement on the deal, Hulu did confirm the Daria availability a few days ago via Twitter.
While the exact terms of the deal have not been made public yet, reports are confirming Nathan for You, My Super Sweet 16, and The New Edition Story are also included with Hulu once again gaining exclusive rights to the shows. Like Daria, this includes access to the full back catalog of these titles. In addition to the Hulu-only shows, users will reportedly be able to stream a minimum of an additional twenty movies, and eleven Nickelodeon-owned series, including School of Rock, Kung Fu Panda and Penguins of Madagascar. According to an announcement attributed to Hulu, the collection of new content as a whole represents the company’s “commitment to expanding its library with programming for the whole family.” As an extension of this statement, some of the reported comments clearly suggested more family-friendly content from Nickelodeon will become available in the coming months. Although no firm details on what to expect were provided.
The arrival of the new content marks the latest change as part of much grander ambitions the company seems to have for expanded its market presence and share. A little over a year ago, Hulu entered the live TV arena with a new subscription tier designed to provide access to live TV content, as well as its own back catalog of titles. This is in addition to various tweaks to the company’s access points that have come through since then, designed to speed up the interface and make it more accessible and user-friendly. These changes have not only been about content either, with more recently the company looking to reorganize itself internally, resulting in three executives leaving.