Hulu Looks Outside the U.S.
Hulu, which now counts Disney as one of its owners, wants to build its international viewership.
The L.A.-based Internet TV company, formed in 2007 by NBCU and News Corp., posted a job listing yesterday seeking a director of international business development. Hulu hired Johannes Larcher, who previously ran international operations for Friendster and Overture, as SVP of international in late March.
Today non-U.S. visitors to Hulu see the following message: “Hulu is committed to making its content available worldwide. To do so, we must work through a number of legal and business issues, including obtaining international streaming rights. Know that we are working to make this happen and will continue to do so. Given the international background of the Hulu team, we have both a professional and personal interest in bringing Hulu to a global audience.”
Here’s the description for the international biz dev role:
Hulu’s small but growing team is seeking a talented Business Development professional to help build a service that lets people find and enjoy the world’s premier content when, where and how they want it. The ideal candidate will have significant experience working in an International Business Development role with heavy deal making and relationship building experience in the online media and entertainment marketplace.
This exec’s responsibilities, according to the job listing, will include working with Larcher to:
• Prioritize, research, and analyze new international opportunities for the Hulu service
• Lead definition of regional and country-specific market entry strategies
• Identify and close key partnerships for acquiring content for new markets, both from US-based and local content partners
• Identify and close key distribution partnership agreements in Hulu’s international markets
• Support the operational process to launch Hulu’s service in select international markets
• Assist launched markets in ongoing business development, and provide/coordinate support services as needed
• Provide ongoing business and financial planning support for Hulu’s international markets
huludude commented:
I was browsing around for alternate ways to watch hulu. It looks like the only decent way to do it, is to purchase a private VPN account. I highly doubt hulu can ban them all. I purchased mine from www.hidemynet.com , they provide UK and US servers currently, so I can also login to the UK server to access online video offered in the UK :). Like, Iplayer, Channel 4 on demand, bbc, etc. And it's only 5$/month, beats having to deal with the hassles of using hotspot shield (which is now banned by hulu anyway).
LM commented:
Hulu had lots of international viewership when they didn't block anonymizer software, as they started to last week. Their geo-blocking policy always had a little workaround but they have nastily closed it off to fans who cared enough to seek it out. Lousy decision and mean as heck, to boot.
Francesco commented:
I travel a lot outside the US i love hulu but hate the fact that when i travel the ocntent cannot be accessed. I think it will be smart to provide the access from other countries, not only to show it to US citizen abroad but also to build new markets for american programs.