Nickelodeon, which airs children-friendly programming such as ‘SpongeBob SquarePants,’ will be offered on Hulu’s live-TV option.
Photo: Nickelodeon Network/Everett Collection
ViacomCBS Inc. VIAC -0.43% said Monday it has reached a distribution agreement with Walt Disney Co. ’s Hulu that puts many of its most popular cable channels on the live-TV video-streaming service.
Financial terms of the multiyear agreement weren’t disclosed.
The deal adds 14 cable networks from ViacomCBS to Hulu’s live-TV option, including Comedy Central, MTV and children-friendly channel Nickelodeon. The Paramount Network, home to hit show “Yellowstone” will also be added to Hulu + Live TV.
Before its merger with Viacom, CBS had a distribution agreement with Hulu that put its broadcast network on the live-TV service, along with channels including Pop TV, the CW and the Smithsonian Channel.
The agreement with Hulu is the latest in a series of expanded deals ViacomCBS has signed with distributors since its merger in 2019, including Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube TV, Dish Network Corp. , Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc.
ViacomCBS sold the merger to investors, in part, by promising that the combination of the company’s film and TV assets would make it better able to compete with rivals as the media industry hurtles toward consolidation. That proposition will be tested later this year as ViacomCBS launches Paramount+, an expanded version of its CBS All Access streaming service.
A ViacomCBS spokeswoman said that Paramount+ would be distributed as widely as CBS All Access when it launches later this year.
Write to Benjamin Mullin at [email protected]
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