Television streaming giant Hulu had originally refused to run Democrats’ ads about abortion, guns, and January 6 issues on July 15, as was reported by The Washington Post.
Hulu, which is owned by Disney, rejected ads from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committe (DCCC) and the Democratic Governors Association (DGA). Leader sof these committees scheduled a call with Hulu to discuss the company’s concerns, but Hulu canceled the calls and stalled in later communications about the ads.
After mounting pressure from the Democratic committees and party leaders and candidates claiming Hulu’s ad policy was a threat to democracy and blocking them from mobilizing young voters over the issues, they care about most, as well as a top-trending topic on Twitter (“#BoycottHulu”), Hulu caved to the pressure. Another contributing factor was that Disney’s ESPN and WPVI-TV, the ABC-owned station in Philadelphia, had accepted and run the same ads.
“After a thorough review of ad policies across its linear networks and streaming platforms over the last few months, Disney is now aligning Hulu’s political advertising policies to be consistent with the company’s general entertainment and sports cable networks and ESPN+,” Disney said in a statement released Wednesday.
The company’s statement continued, “Hulu will now accept candidate and issue advertisements covering a wide spectrum of policy positions, but reserves the right to request edits or alternative creative, in alignment with industry standards.”
Disney has told marketers that for the ad-supported tier of Disney+, set to launch in late 2022, it won’t accept political ads, nor will it run ads for alcohol or rival streamers.
