HULU TO PRODUCE COMEDY SERIES WITH BBC

The video website Hulu, whose owners — Disney/ABC, News Corp/Fox, and Comcast/NBC — are frequently at odds over the use of the site to showcase their programs, has entered into a co-production deal that does not involve any of the owners. It announced on Wednesday that it will co-produce the fourth season of the BBC political comedy The Thick of It. The deal also gives Hulu and Hulu Plus the right to stream episodes of the first three seasons beginning on July 29. (Those episodes were previously carried on cable by BBC America, but the often obscenity-laced language was bleeped; the Hulu repeats will be presented uncensored.) The fourth season of The Thick of It will be launched on Hulu in the fall at the same time that it debuts on the BBC.