Hulu

Hulu (, HOO-loo) is an American subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as a joint venture between News Corporation (later 21st Century Fox) and NBC Universal, which was later bought by Comcast. Many companies like AT&T's WarnerMedia, Providence Equity, and the Walt Disney Company bought stakes in the service. Hulu served as an aggregation of recent episodes of television series from the respective television broadcasting by its owners. In 2010, Hulu launched a subscription service, initially branded as "Hulu Plus," which featured full seasons of programs from the companies and other partners, and un-delayed access to new episodes. In 2017, the company launched Hulu with Live TV—an over-the-top streaming television service offering access to broadcast television channels. In 2011, Hulu launched its services in Japan, marking its first and only international expansion. Three years later in 2014, Hulu Japan was acquired by Nippon TV and spun off from its American counterpart. Since February 2021, Hulu's original content has since been distributed outside of the U.S. via Disney+ under the Star brand. In 2019, Disney acquired a majority stake in Hulu as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, and subsequently acquired the remaining stakes held by AT&T and Comcast in 2019 and 2023, respectively, giving it full ownership. After the acquisition, Disney soft launched an integration of Hulu into Disney+ as a content hub in December 2023, allowing subscribers of both services to access Hulu content from within the Disney+ app. Hulu is one of the three streaming services in the Disney Bundle, alongside Disney+ and ESPN+. On January 6, 2025, Disney began its acquisition of a 70% stake in FuboTV, with the latter merging with Hulu's Live TV service. The combined company will remain publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, but will be controlled by Disney executives. As part of the deal, Fubo settled a lawsuit against ESPN Inc. (majority-owned by Disney), Fox Corporation (21CF's successor), and Warner Bros. Discovery (WarnerMedia's successor after its merger with Discovery, Inc.) over a joint venture known as Venu Sports, with Fubo being granted a preliminary injection to stop its launch in August 2024. The merger will take 12 to 18 months according to Disney and Fubo. Venu Sports was discontinued a few days later.

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