9:44 AM PDT 3/19/2015 by Natalie Jarvey
Hulu has nabbed the exclusive streaming rights to Empire through a deal with Twentieth Century Fox TV Distribution.
Under the deal, Hulu Plus is offering the entire first season of the popular Fox drama and will have exclusive SVOD rights to future episodes.
Empire, which stars Terrence Howard as hip hop mogul Lucious Lyon, tells the story of the family drama at the center Empire Entertainment. It has become a smash hit for Fox and the No. 1 show on broadcast TV. Hulu's announcement comes the morning after Empire's two-hour finale, which averaged a 6.4 rating with adults 18-49 and drew 16.5 million viewers.
It's a big coup for Hulu — which is owned by NBCUniversal Television Group, Fox Broadcasting Co. and Disney-ABC TV Group — in the effort to secure exclusive content to make its offerings more attractive than those of competitors Netflix and Amazon Prime. The deal follows other exclusive pacts for shows including CBS procedural CSI and FX miniseries Fargo. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Empire premiered Jan. 7 on Fox. The 12-episode first season is currently available to subscribers on Hulu Plus, with the five most recent episodes streaming for free.
