The ESPN/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery sports streaming joint venture still doesn’t have a name. But one possibility involving a familiar brand has been mooted.
The Desk reports that Hulu Sports has made the short list of possible names, and could even be the leading candidate. The Hulu Sports name is favored because “executives feel the Hulu brand name is already familiar with consumers who have ditched cable and satellite for streaming services.”
Using the Hulu brand for the service could be incredibly beneficial for several reasons.
The obvious one is brand recognition. Hulu is an established name in the streaming industry, both for live and on-demand content. Tacking “Sports” onto the Hulu name is one less brand potential subscribers will need to worry about.
The joint venture existing as Hulu Sports also could allow for an easy tiered experience in the Hulu app. You could go with the streaming option with no live content, Hulu Sports with all the sports content (and maybe library content outside of ESPN+?), or Hulu Live TV, with everything in the previous two tiers. Hulu also lets you tack additional subscriptions onto your plan, which could allow for easier bundling with Disney+ or Max.
I’m also curious if using the Hulu Sports brand could hold off attention from federal regulators. Instead of being a whole new brand, the joint venture could be looked at as a new tier of an existing brand.
Ultimately, this is an interesting development, but we’re still months away from the joint venture’s launch. The name is just one of many details we’re lacking right now.
[The Desk]
