The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has announced it will join forces with NBC Universal, Newscorp (Fox), and Providence Equity Partners as a joint venture partner and equity owner of Hulu.  This will pave the way for full-length streaming episodes of Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice, Ugly Betty, Scrubs, Greek, Hope and Faith, Less Than Perfect, Wizards of Waverly Place, Phineas and Ferb, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, General Hospital, The View and The Secret Life of the American Teenager to be available online with limited commercials.

Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, said, "We're honored to welcome the Disney team in our mission to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium content, when, where and how they want it.  With the addition of shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and many more to Hulu, we continue to aspire to deliver a service that users, advertisers and content owners unabashedly love."

Robert A. Iger, president and CEO WDC, said, "From our landmark iTunes deal to our pioneering decision to stream ad supported shows on our ABC.com player, Disney has sought to meet the constantly evolving viewing habits of our consumers, and today’s Hulu announcement is the next important step in that ongoing journey."

This consolidates a lot of online viewing power in Hulu's virtual hands.  Mushy brain-eating aside, Hulu has a large (and legal) library of video to view.  While YouTube has nothing to fear quite yet, the same cable providers who have been overcharging for broadband internet are watching as their customers' reasons for keeping paid cable dwindle quickly.  Add the back library of Disney's goodies, and there's Netflix out the door, too. Saavy advertizers who want to throw more weight to Hulu's mini-commercial breaks -- which viewers sit through -- might take that same funding away from normally-broadcast shows (which get the DVR and channel-flipping treatment).  Of course, for shows we love, more webisodes and fewer broadcast episodes, especially if it meant the difference between continuing and cancellation, might not be so bad.  It's a delicate balance, and now that balance includes a very big Mouse.

(Source: Yahoo!)