Just watched BirdBox on Netflix

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I really enjoyed it actually! I was surprised at how many changes they made from the book though, for some reason I had it in my head that it was going to be a pretty close retelling of it. One thing that stood out to me was I remember (although disclaimer that it has been a few years since I read it now!)

Comments

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I would also think that it would be great publicity for Disney’s new streaming service, just imagine the number of grateful fans saying that they have a loyal subscriber in them in that case, but apparently Disney want to keep all of that content family friendly, so it seems like the next best guess is Hulu? They don’t have *that much* original content yet, I get the impression that most people subscribe more for access to all of the network shows, and in the past they’ve said that one reason for waiting on expanding internationally is that they wouldn’t really have enough content. Here in the U.K. for example a lot of the content that you find on Hulu in America has already been licensed to Sky or to Amazon Prime. So it would seem like a total gift to have 5 new shows with already build-in fanbases that they can then promote as exclusive to Hulu from now on, they could even bring back The Defenders as well?

(Also I hope that Hulu does arrive here by the summer, I really want to watch the new Veronica Mars mini series that they’ve picked up!)

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I wonder if Disney+ will be rolled out internationally or if it's US only at the beginning. That's why I didn't even consider them expanding Hulu.

Here in the U.K. for example a lot of the content that you find on Hulu in America has already been licensed to Sky or to Amazon Prime.
It's the same in Germany. For The Handmaid's Tale, you'd have to subscribe to MagentaTV which is not something I knew even existed until I saw promo posters for THT. And Netflix doesn't have the rights for House of Cards here because they sold them before expanding.

I agree that it would be smart to revive the shows on Hulu for international distribution.

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I’m not sure about Disney+ actually, I’ve just heard that Hulu should be coming to more countries from this year, but it would make sense to me if Disney+ is also included in that as they would have plenty of content I imagine

Majority of Hulu shows (not the originals, but the network shows that are apparently included on Hulu in America) seem to be on Amazon Prime for us at the moment. It will be interesting to see what changes there when Hulu does become available in the U.K. , because at the moment it feels like one of those rare times when the U.K. comes out ahead by having most of the shows in one place, rather than spread out across CBS Acccess, Hulu and other sites. Prime has The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Supernatural, Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, X-Files, Lost, Runaways, Empire, Grey’s Anatomy, Bones, Prison Break, White Coller, Will And Grace, The Office etc etc etc. I don’t care about most of their originals admittedly, but they’ve really stepped it up lately with adding older box sets to binge, and my understanding is that that’s more of a Hulu thing in America

I imagine that the content will become more divided up once Hulu debuts here though, but certainly at the moment it feels like a rare thing for a streaming site to actually have more content to offer the U.K. than the US for once

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It's been a while since my last comment, but now we know that Disney+ will only be rolled out in the US at first. I also haven't heard anything new about Hulu crossing the pond. Although I could imagine it's more likely that the UK gets stuff first. Germans and French(?) like their dubbing.

Amazon also has some rights for Hulu shows here. Germany has most stuff on Prime and Netflix, but we also have Magenta and Sky. The latter has Game of Thrones which is a big sell apparently. There is also Maxdome which has the rights for a couple of network shows, like The Resident and Grey's Anatomy, and some original German content which I have zero interest in.

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I haven’t heard an exact date for Hulu, but last year they were saying that it should expand internationally sometime in 2019 now that Disney have shares in it, but I’ve no idea if that’s still the case or not. They really seem to be dragging their feet on it, maybe they want to wait until they get enough original content as they seem to be commissioning a lot more shows lately, but it’s just getting frustrating at this point when Netflix has been worldwide since 2012....