Hulu Has a Content Problem

When Disney bought up Hulu, it seemed like a pretty cushy deal. After all, Disney+ is very concerned with streaming anything that may be considered too edgy and Hulu is the perfect place for such fare. But the streamer, who licenses many of its most popular shows from other companies with their own streaming services, is facing some serious issues in the future. From this article:

Starting in 2022, NBCUniversal will have the right to cancel most of its content-licensing agreements with Hulu and could decide to bring its programming exclusively to Peacock. Analysts say ViacomCBS (which has launched Paramount Plus) and Fox Corp. (which owns free, ad-supported streamer Tubi) also are likely to claw their programs back from the streamer.

So then does this mean that Hulu will just depend on a large amount of their own stuff? Well, that does not seem super easy to do, as Disney is not spending a particularly large amount of money on original programming. As the article also states, Hulu is going to find itself “hollowed out” next year if it doesn’t start putting out some eye-catching content of its own.

But without a massive budget how are they going to pull it off? An efficient method would be to use AI.

Hulu has plenty of data about what their viewers are watching and by using something like Resonance AI they can dive much deeper, past the genres into the actual elements that comprise the content. This would give them a full understanding of what is keeping their audience's attention and what's losing them.

This then could be used as the building blocks of figuring out the content that will have a high likelihood of resonating with the audience, a more risk-averse strategy that can go a long way towards producing original programming for less money.

Also, utilizing this data, Hulu can get better at surfacing the content that they already have, to make sure that if certain shows are removed they will know what still resonates with viewers.

Next year is certainly going to be challenging for Hulu, but there are ways for them to utilize existing technology to create content that will keep people watching.