Hulu Starts Showing ABC Programming


Hulu will finally begin displaying programming from Disney’s ABC on Monday, the culmination of months of negotiations and a big step for the online video site.

Hulu was founded by GE’s NBC and News Corp.’s Fox and has been limited to broadcasts from the two networks. If the site is to become THE online destination for television over the Internet, it obviously needs a broader spectrum of content.

That’s where ABC fits in. Starting Monday, Hulu will begin showing some of the most recent episodes of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy.

They include “the two-part Season 5 opener, two episodes from the middle of the season, and another pair that lead up to the heart-wrenching finale,” according to a Hulu blog post.

Other ABC programs are on the way.

The development is important for the two-year-old site. According to reports, the negotiations with ABC took more than four months leading up to a deal that was announced in May.

According to the news site All Things Digital, ABC was forced to agree to an exclusive online distribution arrangement with Hulu in exchange for an extension of the exclusive arrangement NBC and Fox have made with the site. It also had to kick in marketing money.