Disney Buys Stake In Hulu, Will Add ABC Content Online

The Walt Disney has taken a 30 percent stake in the online video site Hulu and will offer full-length episodes of its most popular ABC network television shows on the site, including Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Lost.

Disney, through its ABC Enterprises subsidiary, joins NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners as a joint venture partner in Hulu, which has been rapidly gaining popularity among viewers of online videos.

Hulu has also been increasing its mindshare of Web surfers lately through television ads starring actor Alec Baldwin that portray Hulu as an alien plot to turn viewers' brains into edible mush.

Disney, which announced the deal Thursday, didn't disclose financial details. Disney had reportedly been in negotiations with NBC Universal and News Corp. for some time about acquiring a stake in Hulu.

In addition to showing episodes of current shows on Hulu, Disney is also expected to offer older episodes of shows from the ABC vaults including Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and Dancing With The Stars.

While other media companies contribute content to Hulu, they do not own an equity stake in the company.

Internet users in the U.S. viewed 14.5 billion videos online during the month of March, an increase of 11 percent from February, according to Comscore Video Metrix, which tracks Internet usage. Nearly 150 million people in the U.S. watched an average of 97 videos online in March -- working out to an average of 5.5 hours.

Google sites, including the Google-owned YouTube, remain far-and-away the leading Web sites for video viewing. But Hulu has been rapidly gaining and in March ranked among the top three U.S. online video properties for the first time.

Google sites accounted for more than 5.9 billion or 40.9 percent of all watched videos with YouTube accounting for more than 99 percent of those. Fox Interactive Media was second with 3.0 percent of all watched videos (437.1 million). Hulu was ranked third -- up from fourth in February and sixth in January -- accounting for 2.6 percent of all watched videos (380.1 million). The Disney Online Web site was ranked ninth among video viewing sites.