On-demand video service Hulu.com is set to get a UK launch this coming September according to latest reports.
The Telegraph claims that Hulu is on the verge of signing key deals with ITV and Channel 4 gearing up for the major UK launch later this year.
Hulu pretty much offers to American users what Project Kangaroo was meant to do in UK before the competition commission put an end to that – minus the BBC but with a whole host of US content.
That's right. Hulu will offer UK TV and video on-demand fans over 3,000 hours of American TV shows in addition to ramping up its offering with content from UK providers such as C4 and ITV.
Negotiations over ad revenue
The Telegraph's sources close to the Hulu negotiations predict that the service "will follow the British VoD pattern and allow access to the British TV partners' content the night after it broadcasts, making it available for 30 days."
But, that report adds, Hulu's negotiations with UK TV networks "have come to a temporary halt because Hulu wants to retain control over Channel 4's and ITV's advertising sales around all of content on the platform."
A TV exec close to the negotiations added: "Hulu is proposing a model that works in the American marketplace – however Channel 4 and ITV will not consent to that.
"Both parties always retain the commercial rights and sell their own ad inventory. Hulu executives want a September launch and are running out of time if they continue with this line of negotiation."
T3.com via The Telegraph
