“Serious” discussions are occurring between Disney and Hulu about distributing ABC and possibly ESPN content through the fast-growing video site, according to paidContent. A possible deal would have Disney offering up programming in exchange for 10 percent of Hulu (currently, Fox and NBC each own 45 percent, and investor Providence Equity owns 10 percent, for which it paid $100 million).

Complications include NBC’s and Fox’s partially exclusive online distribution deals with Hulu that are only two years long. Would Disney force them to re-up? In a world where Hulu’s success is only inspiring more competition, and with distribution tiffs cropping up for sites like TV.com and services like Boxee, a show of strength would be fantastic for Hulu right now. While Hulu has added many content providers since the founding two, it still lacks CBS content after negotiations for a prospective deal similar to the Disney one fell through.

It all depends on how much loyalty NBC and Fox have for their spinoff, and how much they’re willing to give away to make it succeed. The original Hulu CEO, George Kliavkoff, has left NBC for Hearst, and a major Hulu advocate at News Corp., Peter Chernin, is on his way out as well. You’d think they wouldn’t want to leave a site that just grew traffic 33 percent in one month hanging, but you never know with these old media folk.

George Kliavkoff is done bringing digital gospel to old media. Now he wants to “start, run or invest” in an online business, he said in an internal email announcing he will leave his post as NBC Universal’s chief digital officer at the end of the year. The email, parts of which were published by CNET today, noted that NBCU’s digital revenues will top $1 billion in 2009 and that Kliavkoff feels his work at the media giant is done.

Kliavkoff had been with NBCU since August 2006, was the interim CEO for Hulu before it became fully formed, and most recently led NBCU’s widely viewed portal for online Olympics coverage. He had also been in charge of less successful efforts like NBC Direct, the network’s dysfunctional web video-on-demand service. Prior to NBCU, Kliavkoff had led the digital arm of Major League Baseball Advanced Media.

Kliavkoff will stay with NBCU through the end of the year and take time off before his next project, according to CNET. NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker said in a cordial statement that he appreciated Kliavkoff’s efforts to embed digital into each of the company’s divisions. We at NewTeeVee will miss Kliavkoff’s informative public remarks that gave specific details into NBC’s digital thinking. We only hope he will continue to be so clear-headed at his next venture.

For some of Kliavkoff’s new media wisdom, see our 2009 predictions series from the end of last year, where he was a featured pundit.

Acknowledging the growing role of digital media within their organizations, both CBS and NBC announced promotions for some of their top digital execs today. But digital isn’t moving anything or anyone else out the door yet; in both instances, the moves created new, formerly unfilled titles.

Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive since November 2006, will now be CEO of that division. The announcement came alongside confirmation that CBS’ acquisition of CNET was completed. CNET CEO Neil Ashe will now fill Smith’s old role. The CBS Interactive unit is being expanded along five verticals: technology, entertainment, sports, news and business.

And over at NBC, Vivi Zigler is now President of NBC Universal Digital Entertainment. Previously she was “Executive Vice President, NBC Digital Entertainment and New Media,” and had been since August 2006. Zigler oversees the NBC Universal Digital Studio and NBC.com. Since NBC splits up its entertainment fare from the rest of its content, Zigler isn’t in charge of all digital initiatives; the company still has George Kliavkoff as its chief digital officer.

After an acrimonious and public split from Apple last year, NBC says it wants to put its TV content back on iTunes — but the peacock wants anti-piracy measures and flexibility over pricing first.

Speaking at the ad:tech conference in San Francisco, NBC Chief Digital Officer George Kliavkoff didn’t mention iTunes by name when discussing piracy, but according to CNET, it was clear who he meant. Kliavkoff insinuated that Apple could create some type of mechanism in its iTunes/iPod combo to sniff out pirated content.

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