NBCUniversal has terminated its content-sharing agreement with Hulu as the company redirects its broadcasts to its own competing streaming service, Peacock, a NBCU spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter.
Starting this fall, new episodes of NBCU shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Voice and American Auto will no longer be available for streaming on Hulu the day after they air. Hulu will still have access to other NBCU shows such as Law & Order: SVU, This Is Us, The Mindy Project, 30 Rock, Parenthood, Friday Night Lights and Will & Grace.
“With the proliferation of streaming services entering the market, we have long expected changes in the supply of content from third parties and have increased our investment in original content in the last few years,” said a Hulu spokesman.
The end of the NBCU-Hulu partnership is coming as NBCU and parent company Comcast seek to increase the number of paying subscribers to their troubled Peacock service. At the end of 2021, the service had 9 million paying subscribers out of a total of 24.5 million monthly active accounts.
The Wall Street Journal first reported in February that the content deal was coming to an end.
Since launching in 2020, Peacock has shared much of NBCU’s catalog with Hulu. By downloading this content, the broadcasts will become exclusive to Peacock, potentially making Hulu less valuable to some subscribers and Peacock a more desirable option for others.
Comcast and Disney are in arbitration for Hulu, of which Comcast holds a 33 percent stake.