Hulu today announced a sizable content deal with 20th Century Fox Television Distribution that will allow Hulu to add nearly 3,000 more episodes of popular TV shows, including dramas and comedies, to Hulu’s streaming service. The deal will give Hulu the streaming rights to several well-known titles, such as “How I Met Your Mother,” “Burn Notice,” “Bones,” and “Glee,” and will also bring to Hulu the full back catalog of older shows, like “MAS*H” and “NYPD Blue,” as well.
21st Century Fox owns roughly a third of Hulu, but Hulu still has to negotiate for streaming rights to 20th Century Fox content. So far, however, it’s done well on that front.
The new agreement comes shortly after Hulu announced another deal with 20th Century Fox earlier this month, which allows the service to expand its offering of animated series, including the full libraries for shows like “Bob’s Burgers,” “American Dad!,” and “Futurama,” among others.
And another recent deal between Hulu and 20th Century Fox made the service the exclusive subscription video on-demand home to the top drama “This Is Us,” plus other notable shows like “Fresh Off the Boat,” “The Last Man on Earth,” “Homeland,” and more.
According to Hulu, the TV programs wrapped into this new deal will be steadily rolled out to Hulu’s service over the coming weeks. While Hulu didn’t announce the exact timeframe as to when all the shows would be added, we understand that most will arrive sometime later this summer, with the full rollout expected to complete by year-end.
A partial list of the forthcoming shows includes several wrapped and cancelled series as well as back catalog content from classic shows:
“How I Met Your Mother,” “Raising Hope,” “The Bernie Mac Show,” “Better Off Ted,” “Reba,” “Life in Pieces,” “NYPD Blue,” “Bones,” “Glee,” “Burn Notice,” “White Collar,” “The Practice,” “Don’t Trust the B—in Apartment 23,” “The Grinder,” “Blue Collar,” “Saving Grace,” “Lie To Me,” “Graceland,” “Dollhouse,” “Wilfred,” “The Glades,” “MAS*H,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Hill Street Blues,” and “The Bob Newhart Show.”
Other shows will also be included, but Hulu isn’t providing the full list at this time.
The multi-year deal is for the Hulu on-demand subscription service, including customers on the limited commercials and the ad-free plans, the company says. That means customers who subscribe only to the on-demand service will gain access, as well those who subscribe to Hulu Live TV, given that the Live TV service includes Hulu’s on-demand library, too.
Hulu’s live TV service – a competitor with Sling, Vue, DirecTV Now and others – launched this year, but many consumers are still only familiar with Hulu’s on-demand only service, and tend to think of Hulu more as a way to catch up on favorite, current TV shows, rather than an alternative to Netflix. But to be competitive in a market where Netflix’s subscriber base is surging, Hulu needs additional content to further round out its catalog and make it feel like there’s more to watch beyond what’s on right now.
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