Hulu Announces Deal To Distribute AEW In Japan

AEW have announced a deal with Hulu Japan.

All Elite Wrestling announced on Tuesday night that Hulu Japan will exclusively distribute all their weekly content and pay-per-views, starting later this fall. This announcement came a day after WWE announced that they have teamed up with Netflix for their distribution in Japan starting on October 1. The announcement was made via their X account.

Hulu Japan may sound like a subsidiary of Hulu, however it’s actually an independent entity owned by the Nippon Television Network Corporation, which owns Nippon TV, the oldest television broadcaster in the country. Over its 70 plus years running, they served as the main distributor for All Japan Pro Wrestling and later Pro Wrestling NOAH.

Prior to this announcement, AEW was looking for a new home in Japan after their agreement with NJPW World seemingly ended around the time MyAEW launched. Hulu Japan sports a wider viewer base than NJPW World, as they sport a little less than three million subscribers as of writing.

Hulu Japan currently transmits a lot of different sports on their service as of writing including Rugby, Golf, and Paralympic sports. On the wrestling front, they also show old AJPW footage and Dragongate.

Speaking of media rights in Japan, yesterday saw WWE announce a new home for their content in the country moving forward. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on AEW’s deal with Hulu Japan as soon as we hear more.