ITV and Hulu close to agreeing deal - or not
- Added:
- Nov 13, 2009
Conflicting reports have surfaced this week about the ongoing discussions between US-based online video service Hulu and ITV.
On Tuesday, Media Week reported that a deal was imminent, with ITV set to take a 25% equity stake in a Hulu UK joint-venture. According to the article all outstanding differences between the firms had been resolved and a "happy compromise" had been reached.
Under the deal Hulu UK will receive rights to broadcast full-length episodes of ITV programmes, with some shows being provided on an exclusive basis. ITV is the only broadcaster expected to provide exclusive content to Hulu.
However a subsequent story from C21Media quoted an ITV spokeswoman who said: "There is no deal. Our position hasn't changed from a couple of months ago."
"We're talking to a number of people about the best opportunity for shortform and longform, but we haven't placed our bets yet and we're not about to announce anything. (The report) is highly speculative."
The spokeswoman confirmed that ITV is in talks with Hulu, Google and other firms but that nothing had been finalised.
Hulu has been in negotiations with UK broadcasters for over a year, having initially approached the now-defunt Project Kangaroo consortium. In October Hulu agreed a non-exclusive longform deal with YouTube.
