Hulu in talks to come to the UK and iPlayer to go abroad (at a price)

Popular Video on Demand site Hulu and the company behind it NBC/News Corp are in talks with “all the partners you’d expect” to bring Hulu to the UK.

In an interview with PaidContent, NBCU International President said

The UK is more complicated than anywhere else to have this dialogue at the moment – we just had the Kangaroo dialogue, now Canvas, and a whole set of political issues which make conversation slow. But still keen, the guys are really keen.”

The Kangaroo dialogue was an inquiry by the Competition Commission that was preventing a company called Kangaroo, an iTV project, from launching a similar service in the UK in collaboration with other major TV networks. The outcome has however has not been positive for the companies involved as the Competition Commission put a stop to the Kangaroo project.

This is however good news for Hulu in some respects as it leaves a strong market opportunity open to being targeted.

iPlayer International

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Hulu aren’t the open only video on demand company looking to expand growth abroad. During the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit, BBC’s Director General Mark Thompson said the BBC is now

“talking to all the public service broadcasters and others about the practicalities of sharing the iPlayer.”

Chris Dobson, BBC Worldwide ad sales director told the conference:

A sort of iPlayer-like device that was made available outside the UK might well have to have a subscription feature to it in order to make the economics work.”

So a pay for “iPlayer International” is on the cards and there’s even stronger potential of a Hulu UK too. Unfortunately it does seem some time away and there are likely to be costs involved for the consumer – aside from advertising – particular for the iPlayer.

Would you pay a subscription for either?