Once again, Netflix’s loss is Hulu’s gain. After ABC’s drama “Lost” departed Netflix recently, all six seasons of the show are now streaming in full on Hulu.
As Variety points out, the series is shifting to Hulu as part of Disney/ABC Television’s deal with the streaming service, and that “Lost” left Netflix after a similar Disney deal from 2009 expired.
Hulu has recently scored other ABC Television series including “black-ish,” “The Golden Girls” and the original TGIF lineup.
ABC Television is owned by Disney, which in turn owns a 30% stake in Hulu. Should Disney’s deal to acquire certain 20th Century Fox assets go through, Disney would acquire Fox’s stake in Hulu as well and become the majority Hulu owner.
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Last year, Hulu expanded its deal with 20th Century Fox and locked up streaming rights for 3,000 episodes of television from series including “How I Met Your Mother,” “Burn Notice,” “Bones” and “Glee.”
Disney’s move to put “Lost” on Hulu coincides with how Disney CEO Bob Iger described the company’s streaming strategy. The upcoming Disney-branded streaming service, due for launch in 2019, will focus on Disney film brands including “Star Wars,” Marvel and Pixar, while Hulu will be a more grown-up destination that could receive content Disney might acquire from Fox.
“[Fox] also makes a lot of product that we believe will be of great use, as it already is, to growing Hulu,” Iger said. He added that Disney considers Hulu—of which it will own 60% following the Fox deal—as more of an adult product that will benefit from programming like FX series.
As for Netflix, the migration of ABC/Disney content off its platform is nothing new. Last year, when Disney announced plans for its own streaming service, it also announced that it would be pulling its films from Netflix. Netflix, for its part, has seemed to take the news in stride and called it a natural part of its strategy to focus more on original programming.
This year, Netflix will spend between $7 billion and $8 billion on original programming, including series and films.