It seems Disney and Hulu are trying to become one big integrated family as there are some slight management shifts taking place. Hulu’s senior vice president of scripted originals, Craig Erwich, will no longer be reporting to Hulu CEO Randy Freer. Instead, he will now be working under Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment head, Dana Walden.
Though they are changing management, Erwich and his original comedy and drama team will not be relocating to the Disney headquarters in Burbank. They will remain based out of Hulu’s Santa Monica headquarters.
Hulu’s unscripted original programming, original film and licensed content teams will continue to report to Freer, who in turn, reports to Disney director-to-consumer and international chairman Kevin Mayer.
By integrating under the Walt Disney TV group, Hulu’s scripted programming team will be able to work more closely with their counterparts to determine the right home for developed projects. It will also open up access to working with talent who have deals at Disney’s television studios, including Dan Fogelman, Liz Meriwether, Octavia Spencer and Marc Webb.
Back in May, Disney acquired Comcast’s 33 percent stake in Hulu and gained full operational control of the service. As part of the acquisition, Disney continues to license NBCU content for Hulu at least through 2022, but the content is no longer be exclusive.
Since NBCU is launching their own streaming service next year, they have the option to put the content on their own streaming platform. Hulu is also now available on Xfinity’s X1 platform. The two companies have also extended their carriage agreement for Hulu Live TV by agreeing to continue to carry NBCU channels through 2024.