Hulu Exclusive Demand Hits Record High, Churn Rate Plummets
FX titles on Hulu produce outsized demand, and they’re helping to boost engagement with other Hulu titles.
It’s plain to see that shows like “The Bear” and “Shōgun” are driving huge audiences for Hulu. The two shows have received wide acclaim from both critics and audiences, but until now there were few ways to quantify how popular they and other FX titles have been for the streamer. Thanks to new data from Parrot Analytics, however, it’s more clear than ever just how important exclusive FX titles on Hulu are to the streamer.
Key Details:
- Titles sourced from FX make up 3% to 4% of Hulu’s library, but drive 6% to 7% of demand.
- Total demand for exclusive Hulu content hit an all time high in the second quarter of 2024.
- The churn rate for Hulu has fallen below 3.5%.
Demand for Hulu exclusive shows sourced from FX is clearly driving more viewers to the streaming service. FX titles comprise around 3% to 4% of Hulu’s library, but they create around 6% to 7% of Hulu’s total TV demand, showing the outsized popularity they command.
Even more importantly for Hulu, FX shows are driving demand for Hulu-exclusive content like “The Bear,” “Shōgun” and “Only Murders in the Building,” some of which never air on the linear FX channel despite their branding. Hulu’s total demand for exclusive TV and movies hit an indexed demand score of 149.2 for Hulu in the second quarter of 2024, when “The Bear” and “Shōgun” were airing new episodes. That’s the highest score ever for Hulu.
That also helped lower the churn rate for Hulu to an all-time low of 3.4% during the quarter, a decline from 5.7% the previous quarter. Data from Antenna released in February showed the average churn rate across major streamers is over 5%, so Hulu is handily beating expectations with the lowered figure.
Why is Hulu Hitting Such Record Highs?
The success of Hulu in recent months begs the question of why its exclusive titles are driving so much demand. The simplest answer is that they really are that good; “The Bear” just earned five Emmys, “Shōgun” earned four statues of their own. Both have critical scores of 96% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes, and audience scores that prove they’re some of the best-loved shows on TV.
The availability of Hulu within the Disney Bundle likely helps too. Many customers bundle Hulu with Disney+ and ESPN+ for a cheaper price, since the bundle costs around 40% less than what viewers would pay to get these services separately. That bundle makes it harder to cancel the services held within anyway, and now viewers have such high quality originals to watch on Hulu there’s even less reason to churn. Now is a great time to subscribe to the Disney Bundle, which offers 1,000+ out-of-market NHL games on ESPN+.
The question for Hulu now shifts to whether or not its momentum can be maintained in the face of an upcoming price hike. Disney is raising the cost of nearly all its streaming bundles and standalone services on Oct. 17, and that could prove a very big test for the streamer’s popularity since churn usually soars when prices rise.
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