If you’re a cord cutter and your tastes skew toward animated sitcoms, you might’ve noticed that Netflix has slowly been losing some of its key real estate – including shows like Bob’s Burgers.
It turns out they’re not being stuck in a vault somewhere, however. They’ve all just left Netflix for the cool new kid on the block, Hulu.
To that end, Hulu recently announced a partnership with FOX that will bring nearly 3,000 episodes from FOX’s back catalogue to the streaming service starting today and rolling out over the next few weeks. New shows to the service will include a number of contemporary sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother and Bob’s Burgers, as well as a few classics including M*A*S*H* and NYPD Blue.
While the deal was announced today, it will take some time to see the entire catalogue of shows to be added to the streaming service.
Here’s what you can expect to see pop up on Hulu in the next few months:
- Hit Comedies: How I Met Your Mother, Raising Hope, The Bernie Mac Show, Better Off Ted, Reba, Life in Pieces
- Long-Running Dramas: NYPD Blue, Bones, Glee, Burn Notice, White Collar, The Practice
- Iconic Series: M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, The Bob Newhart Show
- Fan Favorites: Don’t Trust the B—in Apartment 23, The Grinder, Blue Collar, Saving Grace, Lie To Me, Graceland
- Cult Hits: Dollhouse, Wilfred, The Glades
Won the battle, but losing the war
While the FOX deal is a decisive victory for the streaming service in its fight against Netflix, it’s far from the end of the on-going war for subscribers.
Netflix announced earlier this week that it had recently crossed 100 million paying subscribers with just under 50% of that coming from inside the United States and just over 50% coming from the international audience.
Hulu, by comparison, only reported a subscriber base of around 12 million in May 2016, and currently only serves two countries: the US and Japan.
To put it in terms that Game of Thrones fans can understand: For the time being Netflix may be the king of the seven kingdoms, but winter may be coming for the streaming service.
While Hulu might present the most tangible threat to Netflix's reign, HBO announced that its streaming service was growing at a fast clip, just crossing over 2 million subscribers, while Amazon Prime sits somewhere around the 66 million mark – though not all of them are watching shows like Transparent.
Netflix, buoyed by its newfound international popularity, might want to consider buying back the rights to some popular TV shows, lest it be forced to depend on its own shows, which haven't always done well for them. (Fuller House, we're looking in your direction.)
Interested in trying out Hulu for yourself? Head over to Hulu.com/FreeTrial
- Need something new to watch? Here's our list of the best Netflix shows
