A change in the Hulu policy about political ads is not what it may seem to most following the news. Here’s what is happening behind the scenes.
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Alright, are we ready to start chatting about the Hulu situation with Disney and their supposed flip flop on the issue of campaign ads? I did an article yesterday saying that there were some signs of moderation out of entertainment companies — I used the Hulu refusal to run political ads as an example. Then, hours later, Disney made the decision to reverse course and allow such ads on the platform. So does that make me wrong? No. But to explain it, I’m going to have to relay information from anonymous sources that I’ve chatted with today. Whether or not you believe they’re right is up to you. I encourage you to read though and I’ll go into some detail that I think will be convincing even to skeptics out there.
https://twitter.com/YellowFlashGuy/status/1552302415927468037
I’ll begin by talking about the elephant in the room. It looks to the average person like I have egg on my face. In fact, even some friendly YouTubers and commenters are thinking that as well. Surely this must mean that Bob Chapek and Disney are not in fact moderating the company. They want even more politicization, right? Well… not so much. And I don’t mind being wrong as long as I switch to being right as fast as possible. If I had found in speaking with sources that Disney was trudging forward with political activism of the company, I’d be on here saying it. That’s not what they’re saying. For their own safety and job security, I’ll be speaking in broad terms and not doing anything which could identify them. Let’s get started.
The Walt Disney Company owns both Hulu and ESPN+. However, the creation of those platforms is very different. In the case of ESPN+, Disney was hands-on in creating the platform from scratch — they owned ESPN throughout. But in the case of Hulu, Disney did not establish the protocols and policies of the platform because Disney didn’t own a majority in the service until much later. That led to the two platforms having two different policies for political advertisements and what is allowed.
Now you may not know this but political advertisements are big business for companies like Disney. Yet even though that is the case, Disney has been careful about what they allow on ESPN+. The policy for ESPN+ is different and far more strict than the broadcast networks like ABC. As a result, when Disney was presented with this most recent issue of Democrats protesting being kept off of Hulu, Disney had three likely options for how to respond. They could have continued to say “no” with different policies for ESPN+ and Hulu, they could have changed Hulu to the broad options for political advertisements we see on ABC, or they could match the ESPN+ and Hulu policies. They chose the latter. In doing so, even though Disney has made it possible for both parties to advertise on the two services, Disney retains the option to require a political party or candidacy to make edits or changes to an ad. Disney can reject for almost any reason.
Should that make conservatives leery? You bet. Why would anyone think that Disney would be fair?
But at the same time, this is still a movement towards moderation. Here’s why:
The big kahuna for The Walt Disney Company is Disney+. According to my sources, Disney+ will absolutely not, in any way, allow their premier streaming service to have political ads when it launches its advertising tier later this year. That will also come at a time when political advertising will be at its peak. The pressure will be at a maximum to put political advertisements on Disney+ and probably the ad-based Netflix service if it launches in time. After all, campaigns are going to want to reach out to the broadest audience possible. But according to my sources, Disney+ will not allow any political ads at all… and that’s also why Hulu will.
Democrats Complain That Disney Owned Streaming Service ‘Hulu’ Won’t Play Anti-Republican Ads, The Walt Disney Company Immediately Acquiesces To Their Demands https://t.co/dkwAPFramP
— Bounding Into Comics (@BoundingComics) July 27, 2022
By allowing Hulu to offer political ads that Disney deems as non-controversial as possible, Disney can make money off of political ads while simultaneously keeping their far more important service politics-free (in terms of ads). Throwing this bone out there today is allegedly intended to soften the blow for later on. The other thing is that matching the ESPN+ and Hulu policies allows campaigns to only pass one approval process so that everything is streamlined (i.e. Disney makes more money). But ultimately, this provides Disney with the cover they need to keep Disney+ as neutral as they can.
This doesn’t mean that Disney+ content will be politically neutral. That is going to take time. But as for the business decision-makers (i.e. not the creatives or the studios), Chapek is clear: begin moving the company to the middle. I’m not Chapek apologist and I see him as significantly flawed in some areas (keeping Kathleen Kennedy, many of his Disney Parks projects), but I try to call balls and strikes fairly. In this case, I’m sticking with what my sources are saying. I think the decisions made by Disney in the last twenty-four hours have more to do with business and streamlining political ad approval than the politics of the company.
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below and let me know your thoughts!
