Fox, Disney Reach Hulu Carriage Deals

Online video pioneer Hulu said it has signed agreements with 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Co., adding their more than 35 networks to the lineup of Hulu's much-anticipated streaming service, scheduled for an early 2017 launch.

“We’re building a service that offers subscribers the most sought-after programming on television—and channels from 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company are essential to that mix,” said Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins in a statement. “With these two new deals in place, and additional partners to come, Hulu will soon give TV fans of all ages live and on-demand access to their favorite programs in a whole new, more flexible, highly personalized way.”

Hulu announced in May that it planned to launch a streaming virtual MVPD service by the first quarter of 2017 and at the time was working on carriage deals with its owners—Fox, Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversal. In August, Hulu snagged an affiliate deal for carriage of Time Warner’s Turner networks for the service, including CNN, TNT, TBS Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, Boomerang and Turner Classic Movies. Time Warner also purchased a 10% stake in the service for an estimated $580 million.

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