The battle of the video streaming services is heating up. According to a new report from Variety, Hulu is picking up a new comedy series from Lionsgate and RocketJump, the latter of which is best known for the popular YouTube series Video Game High School.
The yet-to-be-titled show, which will include eight half-hour episodes, will follow the process behind the filming of each RocketJump short. A new episode will be made available exclusively on Hulu, on a weekly basis.
If Video Game High School is any indication, RocketJump has its finger on the pulse of both comedic “television” and streaming content – the online program managed to attract more than 84 million views in its first two seasons. Further indicating RocketJump’s understanding of the new generation is another collaboration in the works with Lionsgate: a modern day Twilight Zone-esque show called Dimension 404. As a refresher for the non-techies, “404” is a common online error code that typically signifies “page cannot be found.”
Freddy Wong, one of the 29-year-old millennial wunderkinds behind RocketJump – who is also, by the way, a competitive gamer – tells Variety he feels the “future of TV is online.” With Netflix and YouTube dominating all North American Internet bandwidth at peak hours, multiple networks from HBO to CBS hitting the internet in stand alone apps, and new Web TV providers popping up in Dish’s Sling TV and Sony’s Playstation Vue, Wong’s prediction isn’t exactly the stuff of Nostradamus.
While this will be the first Hulu series for RocketJump, it’s the third collaboration between Hulu and Lionsgate – the video streaming service already offers Deadbeat and Casual from the studio.
If the future of television is online as Wong and so many others predict, three major players have already claimed their stakes as dominant forces: Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. With this program acquisition, it looks like Hulu is really attempting to get on board with the millennial crowd. There is, however, no confirmed premiere date for the RocketJump show. Stay tuned – er, online.
