Streaming services are gaining popularity across the globe as they only require the internet, which is more accessible and convenient than the television cable. The COVID-19 pandemic has made streaming services more desired due to the stay-at-home measures, and these services provide entertainment to its customers. Clients can access news and watch movies online with prices less than six dollars a month, making the streaming services affordable. Therefore, expansion is necessary due to the largely untapped market across the world. This report aims at making Hulu streaming services worldwide, and the target market is Canada.
Hulu Service with Value Proposition
Hulu is a superior streaming service with its headquarters in the United States of America. In 2006, an executive to NBC Universal established Hulu, and the company launched a joint venture with Yahoo and Myspace to aid in its early development. Among all streaming services in the US, Hulu is ranked with the most value as it offers live TV and a remarkable request library (Frost). Moreover, Hulu is compatible with various devices such as the Android TV, Nintendo Switch, Xbox consoles, Google Chromecast and Samsung TVs.
The clients can access kids’ programs, television shows, documentaries, and movies of their choice directly from their devices in addition to other electronic systems. Hulu users receive recent and original programs from great actors, for example, Billy Eichner and Stephen King. Exclusive shows that are not available elsewhere can be accessed on the Hulu streaming platform. Furthermore, Hulu is of significant value to advertisers due to the large audience using the platform for entertainment.
Target Country
The pandemic’s ongoing crisis provides an opportunity for the company to expand its reach and make it international. Since the movement has been restricted in every state, people must work from home, and the only form of entertainment left is watching movies and television programs. A large target market has been spotted in Canada, and Hulu services need to expand into the countries.
Following the enormous subscriber growth on the Hulu platform and comparative brand strength, there has been an increase in revenue. More revenue will help increase investments in programming making it easy for its expansion to the Canadian market. At a conference, Bob Iger, Chief Executive Officer of Disney, focused on the global launching of Disney plus, which will come in with Hulu for big markets outside the United States of America, such as Canada and the United Kingdom (Tillman). Tapping the outside markets will make the company meet its objective of becoming an international brand.
Barrier to Entry in Canadian Market
Like any other business, Hulu is experiencing difficulty entering the Canadian market due to various issues. The barrier witnessed by Hulu in undertaking its operations and providing services to Canadians is because of content rights issues and policies. Different production houses that produce the movies and TV shows on Hulu use various streaming services to spread their content to many regions across the world. The production houses come up with distribution policies that streaming services need to adhere to.
Therefore, Hulu is required to follow these distribution policies, a failure to which the law will penalize the company. Consequently, Hulu does not provide streaming services to its streamers outside the USA as these content rights policies restrict the company to America (Ahmed). Content right policies are the main barrier Hulu faces in its attempt to expand operations internationally.
Hulu Service Modification
In its operations over the years, the Hulu platform has been experiencing modifications in design, intending to improve discovery and navigation. The user interface has been redesigned to feature TV shows, and movies with titles laid vertical within the home screen (Perez). Further modifications to counter the restrictions of entry in the Canadian market have been established. Hulu streamers in Canada can now use gift cards to pay for the services quickly and conveniently.
Various services in Canada provide Hulu gift cards, such as Walmart, Target, eBay, and My gift card supply. Once the gift card is received, clients will receive an email with a code, connect to the US server using an express virtual private network, and enter the code on the Hulu website to redeem the gift card, enabling them to start streaming (Ahmed). The modification allows subscribers to entertain themselves by efficiently bypassing the restricted websites.
Resources Required for Hulu’s Expansion Success
The overseas expansion of Hulu to Canada will require various resources to help see the proposal to its success. Support from the company’s shareholders, such as Walt Disney Company, would provide additional investments for growth in the international markets. Hulu company will aim at improving its relationship with the Canadian government rather than wage endless legal battles in the courts of Canada. The government of Canada will be given the ability to add its cryptography on the Hulu platform for controlling the release of sensitive issues, such as national defense and political offices. Investments will carter the development of local programming that appeals to the Canadian market and provides their services over a wide range of internet speeds. Hulu will have to lower its prices to compete with the other streaming services in the region, such as Netflix.
Competition Scan
The concept of competition is something that businesses must face in every industry. Healthy competition betters a company as it will drive it to provide quality services at lower prices and come up with significant innovations. The competition in the streaming services in Canada is very stiff, with Netflix at the top being by far the most subscribed to service. Up until March 2020, Netflix has approximately 52% of respondents in the market, followed by Amazon Prime Video with 25% of respondents (Briggs). Netflix has made significant investments in acquiring legal rights of many original and existing exclusive local TV show series, making it hard for other streaming services to compete in the market. The competition in the streaming industries has been more intense than ever.
Government Regulations
The federal government of Canada has set out public policies and regulations that streaming companies will adhere to in their production and distribution of Canadian content. Companies that fail to comply with the new regulations will be fined and probably have their service revoked. The new rules will require streamers to participate and contribute to the production, development, and distribution of Canadian content. When the bill becomes law, the streaming companies will have to invest $627 million in local content (Dudok).
Moreover, the government legislation strengthens the stipulation provided by the Broadcasting Act that local content should mirror social diversity in Canada from racialized communities to Canadians, gender identities, and all ages. The government has instructed Canada’s telecom and the broadcast regulator to develop ways the streaming companies will use to subsidize content. Canada’s federal government has also provided incentives to streaming service companies for other firms to enter the market, making it easy for Hulu to stretch its services to Canada.
Production Details
Hulu is well known for having the most extensive television catalog in the streaming industry. It also offers other entertainment categories to the subscribers, making it a one-stop-shop for quality program content. Hulu has partnered with various companies that help in the production of its content. Recently, Disney and Hulu are working together and have produced an incredible package that includes Hulu, live TV, Disney plus, and ESPN plus at seventy-two dollars a month. Hulu has partnered with popular TV stations in the region and produced an even more extensive library of new TV shows and movies at lower prices than any other streaming service company does not offer (Christenberry). The production technique Hulu uses in producing its content is effective and is helping in achieving long-term goals.
Packaging of Hulu Services
Hulu packages its services in ways that give its streamers options on how to customize their Hulu plan. The plans offered in the Hulu platform are packed into four; the basic program contains ads in between videos, and it is the cheapest plan of approximately six dollars per month.
The second is the Hulu plan which is eleven dollars and ninety-nine cents per month containing no ads. Hulu basic with live TV costs sixty-four dollars and ninety-nine cents and includes ads. Finally, the Hulu plus live TV plan has approximately seventy-one dollars with no ads playing in between movies while streaming. The subscription plans that support ads save clients six dollars per month, and the ads take sixty to ninety seconds to play. The package prices are affordable and offer a variety of TV shows and movies on demand.
Distribution of Hulu Services
Hulu is a big company with approximately 28 million subscribers on its platform. With a proposal to expand its services in Canada, aggressive distribution strategies have been implemented to ease the process and make it fast. A new premium subscription service has been set in the Hulu platform, and it will enable subscribers’ access full movie seasons from their favorite TV show at the cost of nine dollars and ninety-nine cents per month. As if that is not enough, Hulu plus will be streaming on new internet-enabled devices such as Blu-ray devices, PlayStation consoles, and Xbox 360. The Hulu Plus service is being built on top of existing online services (“Hulu adds premium service”). This distribution technique will capture the target market’s attention, contributing significantly to the company’s growth.
Promotion of Hulu
Hulu has a variety of marketing schemes that it uses to promote its services and stay in the competition of streaming services. Establishing a positive relationship with broadcasting networks allows Hulu to stream current movie seasons of hit TV shows, thus attracting subscribers from all over the country and overseas. Furthermore, Hulu uses Facebook to promote its services by targeting a specific audience to enjoy the free trial package to advertise the TV shows and movies library. The company stays in the media spotlight by holding press releases where customers learn about new and upcoming projects. The free seven-day trial offered to new subscribers is an excellent way of allowing clients to check out the services (Melanie). Investing in marketing strategies is crucial even when a company becomes successful.
Conclusion and Future of Hulu
In conclusion, the tremendous success and confidence that Hulu has attained in America is a clear indication that expansion to the international market is achievable. The company has innovative minds that can help compete with other big streaming companies in the Canadian market. With the high-quality entertainment program lineups that streamers want, Hulu will continue experiencing increased paid subscriptions, thereby achieving long-term objectives. The future of Hulu is promising, with the company expected to increase subscriptions from streamers across the world powered mainly by a notable increase in content output.
Works Cited
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Briggs, Paul. “Netflix is the runaway winner of Canada’s streaming wars”. Inside intelligence, 2020. Web.
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Dudok, Alex. “Canada sets out legislation to make streaming services pay for local content”. Cartoon brew, 2020. Web.
Frost, Bill. “Best TV streaming services of 2021: Live and on-demand.” Cable TV, 2021. Web.
“Hulu adds premium service, expands distribution channels”. Variety. 2010. Web.
Melanie, G. “Discover the path Hulu uses to market its position”. Content writers, 2017. Web.
Perez, Sarah. “Hulu’s biggest redesign in years offers a more standardized experience, improved navigation, and discovery”. Tach crunch, 2020, Web.
Tillman, Maggie. “Hulu streaming services will finally expand internationally in 2021, Disney says”. Pocket-lint, 2021. Web.