This morning brought the announcement that Disney has bought a reported 30% stake in Hulu and will soon start providing a sizable chunk of their programming for everyne to stream through the site. NBC, Fox and now ABC are on the site, which we reported about back in December 2007, and is steadily becoming the place to go online to view your favorite TV shows you might have missed.
Disney will soon begin streaming the following programs for free on Hulu, in full-episode form: Desperate Housewives, General Hospital, Greek, Grey’s Anatomy, Hope and Faith, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Less Than Perfect, Lost, Phineas and Ferb, Private Practice, Scrubs, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Ugly Betty, The View, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
The question now is where will this leave DVD sales, advertising dollars & all the other areas of money to be made. It’s going to be an interesting transition, indeed. Now if only the newspaper industry can find a working model like this that would save them from extinction.