For Disney, the OTT future will not be silo’d.
That was the message put forth by executives for Hulu and the upcoming Disney + SVOD platform, who appeared at the Producers Guild of America’s “Produced By” conference on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif. over the weekend.
“We are getting to a place where we can have a very fluid conversation across our platforms,” said Agnes Chu, senior VP of content for Disney +, who spoke alongside Craig Erwich, SVP content for Hulu, at the event, covered by Deadline and numerous other Hollywood trades.
Disney recently carved out a deal with NBCUniversal to assume full control of Hulu, an asset for which it currently has 67% ownership.
The broader media and telecom industries have been curious as to how Disney will differentiate Disney + from Hulu, and how those platforms might collaborate. The weekend event provided a bit of a feeler.
“We just had this conversation right before we came on stage,” said Chu, referring to Erwich. “We have a great deal with a documentary team, Supper Club…making exclusive content for Disney+. But part of the conversation with them is, if they have a great series that would be a better fit for Hulu, we would love to introduce them.”
Speaking to investors last month, Disney CEO Bob Iger called Hulu the “third prong” in Disney’s OTT strategy, sitting alongside Disney + and ESPN +.
“We’ll be able to manage customers across all platforms -- customer data, password, user name, billing -- it gives us the ability to bundle, [and] share data, Iger said. “Ad sales is another benefit because we’ll integrate it with our ad sales across our other our platforms.”
