‘Bob’s Burgers’ and ‘Family Guy’ Are Hulu’s Most-Watched Shows — Now They’re Here to Stay
“Animation Domination” is Fox’s phrase but Hulu’s truth.
Consistently, Hulu’s top-performing series is not “Only Murders in the Building” or “Tell Me Lies,” but rather Fox’s “Bob’s Burgers” or “Family Guy.” And those animated encores aren’t going anywhere thanks to an extended deal between Fox Entertainment and Hulu — well, they’re not going anywhere until at least 2029.
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The new content-partnership agreement, valued at $1.5 billion per Deadline, will keep new, in-season Fox shows available for streaming on Hulu. It will also keep the out-of-season episodes for Fox’s animated shows like “Bob’s Burgers” and “Family Guy” (not old seasons of “The Simpsons,” which is on Disney+) in Hulu’s archives. Out-of-season episodes for select Fox unscripted shows will continue to be made available through Hulu under the deal.
When reached by IndieWire, a Fox spokesperson and a Hulu spokesperson both declined to comment on the dollar amount.
Because Fox does not have a traditional SVOD (subscription video on-demand) platform, new episodes of its series head to Hulu the day after they premiere on the broadcast network. “Subscription” is the operative word in that acronym: Fox owns Tubi, a serious player in the free-streaming space.
But Fox used to have an ownership stake in SVOD, and as a matter of fact, the streamer we’re talking about is Hulu. Up until March 2019, Fox owned one-third of Hulu — no more and no less than its equal partners in the 2008 joint venture.
Hulu was launched by three (NBC, Fox, and ABC) of the so-called Big 4 broadcast networks in an effort to compete with the newly-streaming Netflix. CBS, with a much older audience, passed on the opportunity; it eventually launched CBS All Access, now Paramount+.
When Disney bought most of Fox’s assets in a $71 billion landscape-shaking deal, the transacted Hulu share shifted the balance of power. With Disney as the majority shareholder of Hulu, NBCUniversal (the same company that bid up Disney’s Fox check by nearly $20 billion) exercised a clause that forced Disney to buy out its own one-third stake in Hulu. Disney paid NBCU about $8 billion for the privilege of full Hulu ownership, and pending arbitration could drive that number even higher. Today, it has 52 million subscribers as of September 30.
Unlike NBCU and Disney, Fox and Disney continue to play nicely together. The marketing of Hulu remains a joint effort between Hulu and Fox, and Hulu will continue to have a presence on Fox-owned spaces.
“Our friends at Hulu and Disney Entertainment are exceptional partners, together driving ongoing mutual growth and strong results,” said Rob Wade, CEO of FOX Entertainment. “Through our new agreement, we look forward to expanding on this impressive track record and collaboratively shaping the future of television in today’s shifting media landscape.”
“The long-standing, valued partnership we have with FOX has cemented Hulu as the next day streaming home for current FOX hits and out of season episodes of key FOX titles, and we’re excited to continue offering these scripted, unscripted and animated series to our subscribers,” said Lauren Tempest, General Manager, Hulu. “Our collective marketing efforts, which will continue with this new deal, have generated impressive results and helped viewers successfully find the shows they want to watch, when they want to watch them.”
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