Why Isn’t Hulu Better?

When Hulu was launched, in 2008, it had the backing of three major motion-picture studios—21st Century Fox, NBC Universal, and Walt Disney Studios/ABC Television. The service seemed poised to dominate video distribution online—but today it ranks only 8th among streaming services, far behind Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video. What happened? From its inception, it turns out, the service faced two major obstacles to success: its ownership structure, which discouraged its members from sharing their most valuable content; and the organizational structure of its members, which focused on their traditional model of doing business, rather than on streaming. But streaming is the future of the entertainment industry, the authors write, and Hulu will only succeed if it acknowledges that truth and adapts its business model accordingly—which, promisingly, it has begun to do.