Hulu

What is Hulu?	A streaming service where you can watch shows and movies.
When did Hulu start?	October 29, 2007.
How many users does Hulu have?	64.1 million as of November 2025.
Where is Hulu available?	Mainly in the United States, with some content available internationally through Disney+.
Who runs Hulu?	Disney Streaming.

Hulu is an American subscription streaming television service owned by Disney Streaming, part of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It is one of the most-subscribed video on demand streaming media services, with millions of paid memberships. The service started on October 29, 2007, as a joint venture between News Corporation and NBC Universal.

At first, Hulu offered recent episodes from television networks such as ABC, NBC, and Fox. In 2010, it introduced a subscription service called “Hulu Plus,” giving full seasons of shows and new episodes right after they aired. By 2017, Hulu added “Hulu + Live TV,” which included broadcast and cable channels.

In 2019, Disney bought most of Hulu when it acquired 21st Century Fox, later taking full control. Disney has worked to connect Hulu with its service Disney+. In 2025, Disney planned to combine Hulu’s apps with Disney+, though they will stay separate subscriptions. Hulu also expanded outside the United States in 2025, replacing the Star brand on Disney+ for entertainment content.

Etymology

The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese phrases. One phrase, húlu, means "calabash" or "bottle gourd." The other, hùlù, means "interactive recording."

Jason Kilar, the former CEO of Hulu, said the name comes from a Chinese saying. He said "gourd" represents something that holds valuable items, like the shows and movies on Hulu. That’s why they chose the name Hulu.

History

Early years (2007–2010)

Hulu started in 2007 when several companies joined together to create the service. People like Bruce Campbell, Peter Chernin, and Jason Kilar helped start Hulu. The service first appeared online in October 2007 and opened to the public in March 2008. Early ads featured actors like Alec Baldwin to get people excited about the new way to watch shows.

Ownership history of Hulu

Multiple joint ventures (2010–2019)

In the years that followed, Hulu grew quickly, adding more shows and movies. By 2010, it was making good money and planning to go public. In 2011, it expanded to Japan, its first step outside the United States. Over time, different companies bought parts of Hulu, changing who was in charge.

Disney majority ownership (2019–2023)

Kelly Campbell, chief marketing officer, later president of Hulu, speaks to AdWeek in 2019.

In 2019, Disney bought a big part of Hulu, becoming its main owner. This helped Disney grow its streaming services. Hulu focused on shows for older audiences while Disney+ offered family-friendly content. In 2021, Hulu raised its prices, and in 2023, it added a special area for animated shows and anime.

Disney full ownership (2023–present)

By 2023, Disney had bought the rest of Hulu from Comcast. In 2025, Disney planned to merge Hulu into Disney+, changing how people watched on different devices. By 2026, Hulu would be part of Disney+, though people could still choose to subscribe to Hulu separately.

Content

Further information: List of Hulu original programming, List of ended Hulu original programming, List of Hulu exclusive international distribution programming, and List of Hulu original films

From January 17, 2011, to April 24, 2014, Hulu shared its own web series called The Morning After. This was a fun show about pop culture news and was made by Hulu together with HDFilms, starring Brian Kimmet and Ginger Gonzaga. Making this show was new for Hulu, which usually shared other people's shows.

In January 2012, Hulu said it would start showing its first original show with a script, called Battleground. This show, which began in February 2012, is a political drama shown in a style like a documentary.

Later in February 2012, Hulu announced a reality series called The Fashion Fund. The winner of this six-part show would get $300,000 to start their fashion career.

Hulu planned to show seven original shows. Besides Battleground, they added Day in the Life and Up to Speed. Later, they added four more shows: Don't Quit Your Daydream, Flow, The Awesomes, and We Got Next. Some of these started in 2012, and others came later.

In May 2012, Hulu brought in Kevin Smith to host a movie talk show called Spoilers, which started in mid-2012.

In March 2016, Hulu and Lionsgate Premiere got the rights to show the movie Joshy, which came out on August 12, 2016.

On May 4, 2016, Hulu got The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, its first documentary. The film was shown in theaters on September 15 before coming to Hulu on September 17.

On March 3, 2025, Hulu showed the 97th Academy Awards together with ABC. This was the first time the Oscars were shown on Hulu. But there were some problems with the technology during the show.

Content partners

After starting, Hulu made deals with many companies to share more shows and movies. At first, Hulu had shows from News Corporation, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, MGM, Warner Bros., and Lionsgate. In April 2009, the Walt Disney Company joined by buying a part of Hulu.

In June 2011, Hulu added hundreds of movies from Miramax.

Starting August 15, 2011, people needed to prove they paid for cable or satellite to watch Fox shows the next day on Hulu. Others had to wait a week to see those shows.

On October 28, 2011, Hulu made a five-year deal with The CW to show shows from five big networks the next day. In September 2013, Hulu made a deal with the BBC to show 2,000 episodes from 144 different shows in the first year.

In 2015, Hulu began showing Showtime shows for an extra $8.99 a month, cheaper than Showtime’s own service. In June 2016, Hulu made a deal with Disney-ABC Television Group to show past seasons of seven Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD shows, plus more than 20 Disney Channel movies.

The deal with The CW ended in September 2016. Now, current CW shows are on the CW’s own websites, and Netflix shows past seasons of CW shows through 2019. By January 2017, some shows from CBS were on Hulu, mostly shows that were no longer making new episodes. Hulu also made a deal to show live CBS and other channel shows and more on-demand shows.

In April 2018, Hulu and Spotify made a deal so people could buy both services at a lower price. University students got an even lower price.

Hulu shows videos on its website and lets other sites show Hulu videos. Users can also put Hulu clips on their own websites. Besides NBC, ABC, and Fox, Hulu has shows from A&E, Big Ten Network, Bravo, E!, Fox Sports 2, FX, PBS, NFL Network, Oxygen, RT America, Fox Sports 1, Sundance TV, Syfy, USA Network, NBCSN, and funny videos from Onion News Network. Hulu keeps thirty to fifty percent of the money from ads on these shows.

In November 2009, Hulu started working with music companies to show music videos and concerts, including EMI and Warner Music Group.

In early March 2010, Viacom took two popular shows, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, off Hulu. They came back in February 2011, but The Daily Show left again in March 2017 to push people to watch on Viacom and Comedy Central’s apps.

In 2012, Viz Media, Aniplex of America, and others made Neon Alley. It started as a web channel on October 2, 2012, but moved to Hulu in 2014. It had anime like Accel World, Blue Exorcist, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Fate/Zero, and Sailor Moon. It also had Naruto, Naruto: Shippuden, Death Note, Inuyasha, Bakuman, Ranma ½, One Piece, One-Punch Man, and Bleach. It stopped on May 4, 2016. But Hulu still shows over 300 anime from Funimation, Aniplex of America, Viz Media, and Sentai Filmworks. More anime started coming back to Hulu after Disney made a deal with Sony Pictures in 2021.

In April 2017, Hulu made a deal with Annapurna Pictures. Hulu also has deals with IFC Films and Magnolia Pictures.

In May 2018, Hulu made its first deal with DreamWorks Animation to be the only place to watch future DWA movies and older ones. These movies would come in 2019, and new series later in 2020.

In October 2018, PocketWatch put 90 episodes of content from their YouTube partners on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. They also made a deal with Paramount Pictures to share these with international companies.

On December 4, 2018, Hulu made a deal with Funimation, which later became part of the Disney-Sony deal on April 21, 2021.

In June 2019, Hulu and FX made a deal with Lionsgate for Hulu and FX to get rights to Lionsgate movies from 2020 and 2021.

In August 2019, Hulu got the rights to movies from Bleecker Street.

On March 2, 2020, Hulu started a section for FX shows called "FX on Hulu". This became the only place to watch current and past FX shows. Starting with Breeders, new FX shows also came to Hulu right after they were on TV. Some shows only came to Hulu first.

On January 14, 2021, after a few weeks in theaters, Searchlight’s Nomadland came to Hulu along with regular theater and drive-in showings in the United States.

On April 21, 2021, Disney made a deal for TV and streaming rights to Sony Pictures movies from 2022 to 2026. This includes some old movies like the Spider-Man, Jumanji, and Hotel Transylvania series, plus anime from Funimation and Crunchyroll, and rights to new movies after their time on Netflix. This deal covers Disney+, Hulu, and Disney’s TV channels. On May 17, 2021, Hulu started Onyx Collective, a brand for creators.

On August 31, 2021, Disney said it would close the American version of Hotstar—a service for Indian Americans—by late 2022. Its special content would move to Hulu.

In October 2025, Hulu got the rights to the Spanish thriller Innate, which was first made by Netflix Spain.

Advertisements controversy

In early 2024, Hulu got some complaints about ads made by a computer that seemed to support one side in a difficult situation. One ad showed a place as a tourist spot without talking about its real history. An article in Vice said many people were upset because the ads were not true and did not respect the feelings of people affected by the situation. This led some people to think about not using Hulu or its parent company, Disney, which also owns the main online advertising provider for Disney’s online services, including Disney+.

Content providers

First and third-party content providers for Hulu. Asterisk (*) denotes third parties, while several international providers secure content deals through Disney+.

Next-day airing model

By early 2026, the old way of showing shows the next day on Hulu changed because Hulu is now part of Disney+. Now, new episodes from Disney-owned channels like ABC, Disney Channel, Freeform, and FX are available the day after they are shown on TV, both on Hulu alone and through the Hulu part of Disney+. FX shows that also play on FX come to Hulu at the same time instead of the next day.

Fox Corporation: Even though some things changed, Fox still has an agreement to keep its main shows available the next day on Hulu.

Departures: Shows from NBCUniversal and Paramount Skydance like NBC, Bravo, and Comedy Central are no longer available the next day. They are now only on Peacock and Paramount+.

Services

Hulu on demand service

Hulu started its subscription service on June 29, 2010, and it officially began on November 17, 2010, under the name Hulu Plus. The service kept ads but offered more shows, including full seasons and newer episodes. Hulu made apps for many devices, like phones, media players, and game consoles.

In April 2015, Hulu changed its name from "Hulu Plus" to just "Hulu." By that time, it had many subscribers. In July 2015, Hulu planned to offer a version without ads for about $12 to $14 a month. This became real in September 2015, with a "No Commercials" plan for $11.99, which was $4 more than the $7.99 plan that had some ads.

In August 2016, Hulu stopped its free videos and moved them to Yahoo! Screen. The Hulu website now focuses only on its paid service. In May 2018, Hulu added 5.1 surround sound to some shows. In December 2016, Hulu started showing some shows in 4K, but stopped in 2018 before bringing it back in July 2019. In August 2021, Hulu added HDR to some original shows.

On January 23, 2019, Hulu lowered the price of its basic plan with ads to $5.99. Since November 2019, Hulu has been part of a bundle with Disney+ and ESPN+ in the United States, costing $12.99 a month for Hulu with ads and $18.99 for Hulu without ads.

On September 7, 2021, Disney said Hulu would raise its prices on October 8, 2021. The plan with ads went from $5.99 to $6.99 a month, and the plan without ads went from $11.99 to $12.99 a month. The live TV plan and the Disney bundle would not change prices at that time.

Hulu + Live TV service

On May 4, 2016, Hulu announced it would start offering live TV from broadcast and cable channels in 2017. On November 1, 2016, companies like 21st Century Fox, the Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to provide their channels to Hulu. The service, called "Hulu with Live TV," began in beta on May 3, 2017, with channels from NBCUniversal, A+E Networks, CBS Corporation, and Scripps Networks Interactive. It was later renamed "Hulu + Live TV" and included many channels.

By May 2018, Hulu + Live TV had many subscribers. In November 2018, it added Discovery Networks channels. In late 2019, Hulu became the top live TV streaming service in the United States with millions of subscribers. The service started at $39.99 a month, then increased to $54.99, and later to $64.99. In January 2021, NewsNation joined Hulu + Live TV. In April 2021, ViacomCBS networks were added. In November 2021, Hulu + Live TV reached millions of subscribers. In December 2021, unlimited DVR, Disney+, and ESPN+ became part of Hulu + Live TV, but the price went up by $5.

In November 2022, Hulu added The Weather Channel and Comedy.TV, plus Hallmark Channel and others. In January 2025, FuboTV agreed to merge with Hulu's live TV service, but both would keep their names. The merger finished on October 29, 2025. In May 2025, Hulu added Univision, UniMás, TUDN, and Galavisión to Hulu + Live TV before the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Viewership

Viewership numbers for Hulu are tracked by companies like YouGov, Comscore, Nielsen Media Research, and Quantcast. These numbers change often, showing how popular the service is.

In May 2018, Hulu announced it had more than 20 million subscribers in the United States. Most people watch Hulu on TVs connected to the internet.

Awards and nominations

Hulu’s show The Handmaid's Tale won two big awards. It also won several awards at the Primetime Emmy Awards, including the top award for drama series. The show’s star, Elisabeth Moss, and another actress, Ann Dowd, won awards for their acting.

Hulu’s documentary about The Beatles, The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, won a Grammy for best music film. In 2020, Hulu’s show The Bravest Knight won an award for kids’ programming. In 2022, U.S. News & World Report named Hulu the best live streaming service.