Disney wants awards too—and is going to use FX on Hulu to get them

Disney’s latest move in the battle of the streaming services is its announcement of a partnership between Hulu and FX, which launches next year. This news comes less than a week before Disney+ launches and amid a solid quarterly earnings report (for Disney).

The new venture will be called “FX on Hulu,” and it launches in March with four original shows. 

“We’re thrilled to have Hulu as our streaming partner with the creation of FX on Hulu, which will be the best and most complete representation of the FX brand, finally putting us on equal footing with competitors like HBO,” FX Chairman John Landgraf tells Deadline.  

Disney making Hulu its prestige streaming service via this FX partnership is probably the boost Hulu needed since the streamer had been mired in uncertainty, at least in some consumers’ minds, for awhile. Hulu has never quite forged a signature identity in the streaming era, while Netflix built a reputation for stellar original programming and comedy specials. Over the years, Hulu’s corporate parents have included Disney, Comcast, and 21st Century Fox. In recent months, Disney acquired most of the assets of Fox while AT&T sold its stake back to Hulu, and Comcast worked out a deal giving Disney complete control. 

Now that a single entity controls Hulu and the FX deal is official, it’s go time. Viewers can look forward to Cate Blanchett’s Mrs. America; The Old Man, starring Jeff Bridges; Alex Garland’s Devs, and A Teacher. 

FX’s award-winning TV content—like American Horror Story—will also be offered on Hulu, with episodes being available on the app shortly after they air on the network. There’s no official word on what will happen to the FXNow streaming service, although we can take an obvious guess. In the meantime, adult TV enthusiasts outside of MCU and Star Wars fandom have something to look forward to.