Hulu Shelves UK Launch

Wow, it seems that Hulu has given up plans for the UK market over rights issues.

It's a brave call, but possibly pragmatic since the UK is a very different market to the US, with more powerful incumbents, a very complex rights map, a relatively small and mature market and heavy competition from the likes of SeeSaw and, possible, Canvas (depending on what that turns out to be).

As we predicted on this blog, ITV have seen the light and decided to invest in their own portal rather than syndicating. It was a strange situation, where ITV might buy rights from Disney and then licence them to Hulu, which is, er..., part owned by Disney.

It'll be interesting to see the reaction at our Vidiactive launch event today!