When Prince Harry was in Canada two weeks ago, many media outlets sent reporters to Vancouver and Whistler to cover the Invictus “One Year To Go” events. The preview events in Whistler were especially popular, with Harry and Meghan walking around openly and allowing photographers and videographers to document their activities. As we soon learned, ABC sent Will Reeves and Good Morning America’s cameras to Canada too, where Harry gave them an exclusive interview. The interview aired on GMA two Fridays ago and it must have been a big success, because ABC/Disney used that exclusive to put together a quick, short documentary, which aired on Hulu over the weekend. This is why the British media spent all weekend screaming about the Sussexes’ Netflix contract – because of the Hulu documentary.

A documentary featuring Prince Harry has appeared on the US streaming service Hulu, a rival to Netflix, with which the Sussexes reportedly signed a $100 million deal four years ago. The 20-minute one-off programme contains no new material and is in effect a combination of an interview with ABC News, which he did earlier this month to promote the Invictus Games, and archive footage.

It includes an interview the duke did with Michelle Obama in 2016 and a video in which the late Queen Elizabeth appeared to promote the games. The prince established the games for wounded veterans a decade ago.

The film does have some contemporaneous elements, including the ABC News interview filmed on February 16 when Harry was asked about the King’s cancer. “I love my family,” he said. “The fact that I was able to get on a plane and spend time with him, I’m grateful for that.”

Given the lack of new material on the Sussexes’ life in California, perhaps the most controversial aspect of the documentary is the fact that it exists at all.

The duke and duchess signed what was reported to be a five-year deal with Netflix in 2020. The money was due to be paid in instalments and while against a set of targets that needed to be met before funds were paid. Hulu, which is owned by Disney, was set up to rival Netflix, and is cheaper than its rival.

It was reported last year that the couple’s deal with Netflix would not be renewed. Executives at the company are thought to have concluded that the couple are not as marketable as they had been in the past.

[From The Times]

Keep in mind, the Sussexes did not produce the Hulu documentary whatsoever. Harry gave interviews to GMA’s Will Reeves in Whistler, and in January 2023, he gave an interview to GMA’s Michael Strahan, and both of those interviews (owned by ABC/GMA) were used in the Hulu doc. If anything, it shows that Harry and Meghan are absolutely marketable, more marketable than the British media would have people believe (as they too obsess over every little thing the Sussexes do). ABC was so pleased that they own exclusive interview footage of Harry that they threw together a short documentary and put it on Hulu, and now the media is giving the doc all kinds of free press. Besides all that, Netflix knows exactly how marketable the Sussexes are – their docuseries was one of the most successful series in Netflix’s history.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.