It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as a joint venture between News Corporation (later 21st Century Fox) and NBC Universal, which was later bought by Comcast.

As part of the deal, Fubo settled a lawsuit against ESPN Inc. (majority-owned by Disney), Fox Corporation (21CF's successor), and Warner Bros.

The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese phrases, húlu (葫芦; 葫蘆; "calabash, bottle gourd") and hùlù (互录; 互錄; "interactive recording").

[4]Individuals who were instrumental[vague] in the founding of Hulu include Bruce Campbell,[5] Peter Chernin,[6] JB Perrette,[7] Mike Lang,[8] Beth Comstock, George Kliavkoff, Darren Feher, and Jason Kilar.

[9] Hulu was announced in March 2007 with AOL, NBCUniversal (then co-owned by General Electric and Vivendi), MSN, Myspace (then owned by News Corporation), and Yahoo!

[19][20][21][22] Early in 2010, Hulu chief executive Jason Kilar said the service had made a profit in two quarters and that the company could top $100 million in revenue by summer 2010, more than its income for all of 2009.

As a result, the streaming service became a division of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International (DTCI) with Comcast effectively becoming a silent partner.

[39] Disney stated that its control of Hulu was the third major component of its direct-to-consumer strategy, complementing its sports streaming service ESPN+, and its then-forthcoming Disney+.

Under the new structure, Hulu's SVP of Original Scripted Content would report directly to the chairman of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment.

[45] In June 2021, Comcast accused Disney of undermining Hulu's growth and value by not engaging in international expansion of the service, having instead added the Star brand as an extension of Disney+ in selected markets.

[46] On September 7, 2021, Hulu announced that the prices of its main video on-demand and ad-free plans would increase by $1 each to $6.99 and $12.99 per-month beginning October 8.

[48] On November 22, 2021, Disney and WarnerMedia reached a deal to let select 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures films stream on Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max in 2022.

Additionally, new seasons of Futurama and King of the Hill were commissioned for the service, while the company also showcased an "immersive" experience at San Diego Comic-Con to promote the occasion, titled Hulu Animayhem: Into the Second Dimension.

From January 17, 2011, to April 24, 2014, Hulu streamed its own in-house web series The Morning After, a light-hearted pop-culture news show.

[64] Later that same month, Hulu announced it would air The Fashion Fund, a six-part reality series, and the winner of the show would receive $300,000 to start their career.

[73] On October 28, 2011, Hulu announced that they had signed a five-year deal with The CW, giving the streaming site access to next-day content from five of the six major networks.

[81] In April 2018, Hulu announced a partnership with Spotify that allows users to purchase both streaming services for a discounted price per month.

The Daily Show was again removed from Hulu in March 2017 in order to push viewers to watch the program on Viacom and Comedy Central's apps.

The site contained exclusive dub premieres with anime such as Accel World, Blue Exorcist, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Fate/Zero and the uncut version of Sailor Moon.

[96][97][98] On January 14, 2021, it was announced that following an exclusive 3-week IMAX engagement, Searchlight's Nomadland would be released on Hulu alongside a regular limited theatrical and drive-in run in the United States on February 19.

[101] On August 31, 2021, Disney announced that it would fold the American version of Hotstar—a niche streaming service targeting Indian Americans—in late-2022, with its original entertainment content migrating to Hulu.

An article by Vice highlighted that many viewers found these advertisements controversial due to perceived factual inaccuracies and insensitivity to the ongoing conflict.

Hulu representatives stated that it intends to negotiate carriage agreements with independently owned broadcasting groups to gain distribution rights to local stations from additional markets.

[136] In the third quarter of 2019, Hulu overtook Sling TV as the top OTT pay television service in the United States, with 2.7 million subscribers.

[143] On December 21, it was announced that unlimited DVR, Disney+ and ESPN+ will be included with Hulu + Live TV moving forward, but the price of the service would be increased by $5.

[145] On January 6, 2025, FuboTV agreed to sell a 70% majority stake in its vMVPD business to Disney and merge with Hulu's live TV service.

Discovery due to their announcement of a sports streaming joint venture, with Fubo winning a lawsuit in August 2024 and being granted a preliminary injection to stop its launch.

In partnership with comScore, Hulu is the first digital company to receive multi-platform measurement at an individual level that includes co-viewing for living room devices.

[91] The tally, which puts the company about 36 million subscriptions behind Netflix, was disclosed at a media presentation at the newly named Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.

[165][166] In 2020, Hulu original series The Bravest Knight won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming.