Viacom and Hulu announced a deal on Monday that would make Hulu the exclusive streaming home for the original MTV animated show Daria, along with a variety of other Viacom properties.
The deal also includes the exclusive full libraries for Comedy Central’s Nathan for You, MTV’s My Super Sweet 16 and BET’s New Edition Story, according to a Hulu spokesperson.
A number of Nickelodeon shows and films — 11 shows and 20 movies — are also being added to Hulu, in an effort to expand its offerings for kids and families.
In May, Hulu announced that it had more than 20 million subscribers in the United States. Netflix, one of its main competitors, has 56.7 million U.S. subscribers, according to an April report, and internal documents from Amazon reported on by Reuters found that Amazon Prime has around 26 million streaming customers.
As traditional television and movie habits shift, streaming media companies are racing to bulk up their programming (including snapping up talent for original programming).
Viacom, which owns a number of television networks like MTV, VHI, Comedy Central, and BET is also trying to capitalize on its own libraries. Last week Viacom announced the creation of MTV Studios, a production wing that would produce reboots of classics — Daria, Made, The Real World and Aeon Flux, for example — and new reality television.
