As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Hulu this week closed a deal with Miramax to bring hundreds of the studio's most popular and cinematically important films, such as Good Will Hunting, The English Patient and Pulp Fiction, to the Hulu Plus - the company's $8/month on-demand video subscription service - as well as sporadically feature select films on its ad-supported free site. As noted in The Los Angeles Times, Hulu Plus subscribers had access to 27 new films as of Wednesday night, June 1.
After enjoying a night on the town to celebrate my birthday, I returned home, turned on my Samsung "smart" TV, pulled up Hulu Plus, and was immediately presented with a screen-size thumbnail offering up Pulp Fiction for immediate viewing. Being among my all-time favorite films, I couldn't resist. And I must say, it only gets better with time, an insight that Netflix has grasped and of which studios are only now realizing the value.
As a Netflix streamer and a Hulu Plus user, I was taken aback at just how closely the two Miramax deals followed one another, not so much because it speaks to the growing value OTT distributors present to studios like Miramax that have stellar libraries of high-demand content, but that Hulu Plus is actually starting to walk the talk - that is, cutting the content deals needed to more effectively compete with the OTT juggernaut known as Netflix. While Hulu Plus has a compelling library of TV content, it has but slowly expanded its movie offerings. Nailing down the Miramax deal is critical to its long-term competitive viability, and represents the firm major Hollywood movie deal for the company. Let's hope it's just the first of many such announcements.
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