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I've watched part one and part two of Naruto, but when I came across episode #96 and after, I couldn't find anymore (dub) episodes.

Why did they stop giving dubbed Shippūden episodes on Hulu?

Aki Tanaka
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user36684
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  • Related? https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/3252/why-did-the-english-dub-of-naruto-stop Since Viz owns the rights of Naruto Shippuden, Hulu may not have brought all the dubbed episodes. Can't find the reason, but probably rooted in revenue – Arcane Nov 19 '17 at 11:05

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There doesn't seem to be much information online regarding why dubbed Naruto: Shippuden specifically is only partly available on Hulu. However, there is some, as well as some more generic information that can be pieced together.

In a question to Hulu about this very topic on FB from 2015, Hulu responded:

It's our goal to provide as much content as possible and to keep it all on our service as long as we can. However, what content we post and how long we're able to keep it on Hulu depends on contractual agreements or streaming clearances granted by our content partners.

An announcement from 2016 of an earlier set of Shippuden episodes being posted on Hulu mentions that Viz media had been putting episodes up sporadically.

This fits with what Anime News Network said about this question more generically. ANN gives a good answer, but to summarize it, there was an original reluctance to posting more than a limited number of dubbed episodes online because the idea was that dubbed episodes have a larger base and so can be sold on DVDs and such. Providing them online would thus cut into the profits from DVD sales because people wouldn't need to buy the DVDs and so only a few at most would be put online to get people interested. Now that streaming has become more profitable, that's changed somewhat, but because Hulu and Netflix make content providers jump through hoops, it's often not worth it to go back and reconfigure old dubbed episodes to post.

This goes along also with a 2011 NYT article, where they mention that it can take at least a year for official dubs; if places like Hulu make it so hard for them to post episodes, they make not see it as worth it to post dubs and go through that work again when the subs have been up for 12+ months already.

Tl;dr: They want people to buy DVDs, and it's a pain to post stuff on streaming.

kuwaly
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