Hulu and Miramax announced on Wednesday that 27 of the popular studio's films are now available on the subscription-based Hulu Plus service, with "hundreds more" coming this summer.
Andy Forssell, Hulu's Senior Vice President of Content and Distribution, also confirmed that those who use the company's free vanilla service won't be left in the dark. In mid-June, non-paying viewers will gain the option to watch pre-selected, ad-supported Miramax movies, said Forssell.
The news comes just two weeks after Miramax struck a similar deal with Netflix, granting the online streaming giant access to many of the same films now promised to Hulu, such as "Pulp Fiction," "The English Patient" and "Good Will Hunting."
Forrsell's excitement about the deal, particularly regarding the inclusion of Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," seems to extend well beyond the realm of an executive towing the company line.
"To anyone who really loves movies, the name Miramax matters," he said in a statement. "At Hulu, we spend a lot of time thinking about innovation and how to foster it. Apart from how much I love these movies themselves, that is another reason I have so much respect for Miramax. They innovated, and they were absolutely relentless about it for more than 30 years."
Mike Lang, CEO of Miramax, similarly championed the agreement, promising the studio's films will be available to Hulu Plus subscribers across several platforms sans the ads present in the standard version.
"Making our films available via premium digital distribution channels is extremely important to Miramax," said Lang, adding that Hulu's position as "a leader in innovation" helped foster the deal.
Do you think this new deal will help Hulu compete better with Netflix, or will the shared library of films do little to sway the Netflix faithful to Hulu? Let us know in the comment section.
