A partnership between the Walt Disney Company's Hulu and entertainment company Live Nation has expanded to include streaming rights for several music festivals over the next two years.
On Thursday, Disney said Hulu will serve as the official television streaming partner for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee, Lollapalooza in Chicago and the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Texas, starting this year and continuing into 2023.
Hulu previously served as the exclusive streaming partner of Lollapalooza last year, with select performances from the music festival available to subscribers of its on-demand and live-streaming television services.
"Hulu and Live Nation are both committed to delivering exceptional entertainment to fans, so we are thrilled to be collaborating with them, again, as we expand our offering to include these three legendary festivals," Joe Earley, the President of Hulu, said in a statement on Thursday.
Charlie Walker, an executive in charge of C3 Presents, the production company in charge of the music festivals, said the demand for live music "is at an all-time high," and Hulu's partnership to live stream three of its biggest music festivals will help get its live concerts in front of more people.
"By expanding our partnership with Hulu, even more fans will be able to tune into each of these incredible festival experiences in real-time and enjoy live performances from their favorite artists with the fans on-site," Walker said.
Bonnaroo will be the first music festival live-streamed on Hulu this year, with the event set to take place between June 16 and June 19. Performance will include sets by rockers Stevie Nicks and Tool; pop artists Machine Gun Kelly and Flume; and rap artists Roddy Ricch and J. Cole.
Lollapalooza will make a return on Hulu next, with the event taking place between July 28 and July 31. Performances streamed on Hulu will include sets by rock band Metallica, punk band Green Day, R&B artist Doja Cat and pop artists Dua Lipa and The Kid Laroi.
The Austin City Limits Music Festival will be the last multi-day concert event to stream on Hulu under the partnership announced on Thursday. The music festival is scheduled to take place in early October, with performances by rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, pop artist Pink, country music superstars The Chicks and R&B artists Lil Nas X and SZA.
Hulu says it will offer two different live streams of performances interspersed with behind-the-scenes coverage each weekend of the festival, with a single live stream covering Thursday performances at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. The live streams will be included as part of a Hulu viewer's subscription, which starts at $6 a month.
The addition of the concert festivals helps bolster Hulu as a destination for live events as it looks to source more live and on-demand content for its adult-oriented streaming service, which is run as a standalone unit within Disney.
This week, Disney said Hulu has more than 45 million subscribers, including over 41 million who pay for either the ad-supported or commercial-free version of Hulu's subscription video on-demand (SVOD) product. Disney said the SVOD service grew by 300,000 subscribers in the three-month period ending in April.