Disney has decided to jump on board with online video streaming by sending over content over to Hulu. That’s not all. Disney has acquired 27% of the company. Disney joins other Hulu owners NBC Universal, News Corporation, and Providence Equity Partners. Soon Disney will be sending over shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy to start with.
“We are smiling big today because we are honored to be working with a company that quite frankly inspired us from the very start of Hulu. Walt Disney was a founder, an innovator, a person with an atypically high quality bar, and someone who was maniacal in his obsession to delight his customers. Hulu has always taken great inspiration in that example and the culture Walt Disney created (which Bob Iger and his team carry forward and push to new levels),” stated the Hulu blog regarding the partnership.
CBS and the CW are basically the only major TV networks left out of Hulu. CBS is hosting high quality episodes of their own TV shows on CBS.com and TV.com. The CW hosts full TV shows on their website too.
SB Nation is a sports startup that was started by Jim Bankoff, former AOL EVP of Consumer and Publisher Services. Bankoff is also a Senior Advisor with Providence Equity Partners. Bankoff was one of the AOL execs that pushed for the development of TMZ.com.
Although it is not known exactly how much SB Nation has raised, TechCrunch pegs it at around the “mid-seven-figure sum.” The funding was provided by Accel, Allen & Co., and several other angel investors. The other angel investors include Ted Leonsis (former AOL Vice Chairman and Washington Capitals owner), Brent Jones (former San Francisco 49ers player and MD of Northgate Capital), Dan Rosenweig, Jeff Weiner, and other executives from Providence Equity Partners.
SB Nation is short for SportsBlogs Nation. About 150 team sites are linked together by local writers within the SB Nation network. All of these bloggers share in advertising revenue. SB Nation sites combined receive about 2 million unique visitors per month.
NBC and News Corp. seem to still be bitter about the massive amount of traffic and attention YouTube is receiving. To the media world, YouTube is looked at as the thief as the neighbor that will borrow your lawn mower and other home maintenance tools, then won’t give it back. Meaning, content that is syndicated to these media companies land on Plymouth “YouTube” Rock and the media companies don’t get any bounty from discovering the land.
The name of the video site is still T.B.D. and will feature content from shows produced by NBC and FOX. I can’t even fathom the negotiations that took place to make this video deal happen between these two companies, because I could have sworn that they are each other’s biggest competitors. I guess YouTube would do that to ya.
Perhaps the inspiration for pursuing and announcing the idea was fueled by interested investors. More specifically, the $100 million for 10% equity deal that Providence Equity Partners is willing to bet on. Through this new venture, a CEO was pulled in for the unnamed company, Jason Kilar. Kilar may be expected to sign deals with other potential content providers (i.e. Disney, CBS, Viacom, etc.).
Another factor to be considered for “New Site” will be considering how to capture the market that Joost has. The idea of Joost has been around for just as long and has changed names (from The Venice Project) and released a Beta product since then. Internet streaming video is moving fast, but perhaps the way that the media companies enter the market may bring meaning to the expression, “well, he knows how to make an appearance.”
References:
[1] Red Herring: Big Money for Big Media
