Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins has confirmed the on-demand streaming service will morph into one that directly competes with traditional TV by adding live channels.
“We’re going to fuse the best of live TV and on-demand,” Hopkins said Wednesday at its NewFronts presentation to an audience of marketers in New York.
Earlier this week, news leaked that Hulu was working with networks at its parent companies — Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast’s NBCUniversal — on such a service, which would add feeds of live broadcast and cable TV channels to its current Netflix-like catalog of video-on-demand shows and movies.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Disney is offering ABC and ESPN, while Fox aims to include its broadcast network, Fox news, FX, and national and regional sports channels. TheWrap reported Monday that NBCUniversal was also in early talks with Hulu about including channels, as well.
Hopkins, however, provided no further details about the coming service during the presentation.
It will be a major shift for Hulu and its traditional TV owners. Adding live channels will make Hulu directly competitive with the traditional TV ecosystem that powers much-bigger businesses at the streaming site’s parents. Rather than competing largely with subscription on-demand services like Netflix, Hulu will morph into more “skinny bundle” online service like Dish’s Sling TV and Playstation’s Vue.
10 'Game of Thrones' Characters Most and Least Likely to Die, According to Science (Photos)
So, did Jon Snow really die in "Game of Thrones" season finale? Did Sansa survive her leap from Winterfell's wall? Before Sunday's return of the series starts unraveling those mysteries, researchers at a German university say their algorithm knows the answers. A student team at the Technical University of Munich analyzed data on all the "Game of Thrones" characters and built a machine-learning program that gives each one a percentage chance of survival or doom. Who is the most and least likely to die next?
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This boy king is virtually dead already. Tommen Baratheon has a 97 percent likelihood of dying, according to the algorithm. Considering his grandfather, father, older brother and sister have all been murdered, and basically every person with any power in Westeros is vying to steal his seat on the Iron Throne, this doom may not be the biggest surprise.
Tommen's uncle, Stannis, is a close runner-up in the algorithm's ranking of who's next to die. He has a 96 percent chance of being offed. Of course, our last glimpse of Stannis was of him lying defenseless on the ground as Brienne of Tarth swung her sword at him for the kill, so...
It doesn't look good for fan favorite Khaleesi. Daenerys Targaryen has a 95 percent of dying, putting her at No. 3 in the close race to the grave.
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Davos Seaworth, Stannis Baratheon's once right-hand deputy, has a 91 percent chance of doom. After barely surviving the battle at King's Landing in Season 2, this Onion Knight may not have long left.
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Petyr Baelish's cunning vaulted him to money and power, and it's saved him from more than one dire scrape. But he has a 91 percent likelihood of dying, according to the algorithm, so his wiles may not get him much farther.
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Among those most likely to survive, Roose Bolton is No. 5 on the "might just make it" list. And even though he makes it into that elusive top 5, he still has a 28 percent likelihood of dying.
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Margaery Tyrell's fate is rosier than her young husband, Tommen, at a 64 percent likelihood of dying. Her father, though, has the best chances in the Tyrell family, at only 18 percent doomed.
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Most people love to hate Cersei Lannister, but her conniving ways earn her a solid chance of surviving. She is only 16 percent likely to die, putting her at No. 3 on the list of survivors.
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Bless the all-knowing algorithm! Jon Snow is alive! At least, there's only an 11 percent chance that the Night's Watch mutiny that left him bleeding in the snow actually killed him. Only one other character has a better likelihood of survival.
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Place your bets now. Although she jumped from the heights of Winterfell's high wall in the finale of the last season, machine learning assures us Sansa is the most likely character of all to survive the "Song of Ice and Fire." She her likelihood of death is only 3 percent.
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Is Jon Snow dead or alive? A machine-learning algorithm pegs the percentage chance of every “Game of Thrones” character surviving or perishing
So, did Jon Snow really die in "Game of Thrones" season finale? Did Sansa survive her leap from Winterfell's wall? Before Sunday's return of the series starts unraveling those mysteries, researchers at a German university say their algorithm knows the answers. A student team at the Technical University of Munich analyzed data on all the "Game of Thrones" characters and built a machine-learning program that gives each one a percentage chance of survival or doom. Who is the most and least likely to die next?
HBO
HBO
