Comment on this story
comment
Disney-backed streaming service Hulu said Wednesday it will begin accepting political ads to the same standards the company uses for its cable networks, opening the door to advertising on controversial issues after Democratic groups attack the company for rejecting ads about abortion and guns. .
In a statement, Hulu said that “after a thorough review,” Disney had decided to align Hulu’s political advertising policies to be consistent with the company’s sports and entertainment cable networks and streaming service ESPN Plus.
“Hulu will now accept candidates and run ads covering a broad spectrum of political positions, but reserves the right to request edits” or other changes “in accordance with industry standards,” the statement said.
The statement did not specifically mention ads about guns or abortion, but those ads have previously aired on other Disney-owned cable networks, such as ESPN.
Democrats, angered by the rejection of two ads this month, mounted a public lobbying campaign on social media this week, asking supporters to denounce Hulu’s policy. The protests were a top trending topic on Twitter on Tuesday, with several accounts publicly announcing that they planned to cancel their service unless Hulu changed its policy.
Mosaic Communications, a Democratic advertising firm, announced in a press release Tuesday that it would stop buying candidate ads with Hulu until the policy changes. Julie Norton, a partner at the firm, said Wednesday’s announcement appeared to address her concerns.
“It looks like they’re trying to do the right thing at this point,” he said. “We certainly applaud them for moving in the right direction.”
The Washington Post reported Monday that Hulu has a policy against posting content deemed controversial. Like other digital providers, it is not bound by the Communications Law of 1934, a law requiring television networks to provide politicians with equal access to the airwaves.
Hulu has shifted its approach to candidate advertising in recent weeks, following similar backlash from Democratic contenders. Suraj Patel, a congressional candidate in New York City, publicly protested the rejection of one of his ads, which mentioned gun violence, abortion and climate change, and showed images of the 6 January 2021 at the US Capitol.
Hulu, which had a more permissive advertising policy for candidates than issues, first allowed the ad to run after replacing a reference to climate change and removing images of violence outside the Capitol.
Then on Monday, after The Post’s article was published, Hulu told its campaign that it would be allowed to run the version of the ad that the company initially rejected. A person familiar with the decision at Hulu, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, said Hulu had decided to accept the rejected ad before Monday but had not told Patel about it. .
The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Governors Association attempted to buy joint ads on abortion and guns with Hulu on July 15, along with identical spots on a Disney-linked ABC affiliate in Philadelphia and on the company’s ESPN cable sports channel. The Hulu ads never ran, while the others did.
“Hulu’s censorship of the truth is outrageous, offensive and another step down a dangerous path for our country,” the executive directors of the three committees, Christie Roberts, Tim Persico and Noam Lee, said in a statement released Monday to The Post. . “Voters have a right to know the facts about MAGA Republicans’ agenda on issues like abortion, and Hulu is doing the American people a huge disservice by preventing voters from knowing the truth about the GOP’s record or denying that these issues are even discussed.”
The monitoring firm Kantar Media projects that $7.8 billion will be spent on political advertising for the 2022 midterm election season, with about $1.2 billion going to over-the-air and connected TV spending, a category that includes ads delivered through streaming services and set-top boxes like Roku. Streaming spending, according to Kantar, is “the new darling of the political set.”
But streaming services have proven more difficult to negotiate with political buyers. Disney has told advertisers that alcohol and political ads will not be accepted on Disney Plus, an independent streaming service, when it launches an ad-supported version later this year. netflix announced this month which is developing an ad-supported version with Microsoft, although the company has not specified its advertising policies.
