UPDATED: Hulu at the TCA press tour: Misfits and Thick Of It's fourth series arrive day and date with U.K.

Hulu held a brief panel at the Television Critics Association summer press tour today, mostly to introduce its summer lineup (the upcoming Up To Speed and Larry King Now, as well as the currently airing Rev., The Thick Of It, and Prisoners Of War) to a roomful of writers mostly used to watching television on their TVs, but it made a couple of interesting announcements, at least in terms of scheduling. The streaming site will air the upcoming fourth series of both Misfits and The Thick Of It, but rather than having a delay between the series' airdates in the United Kingdom and the United States, both will be available in the U.S. on the same day they're available in the U.K. It is very transparently an anti-piracy strategy, but since both series are offered for free on Hulu (with ads), it is one that will probably work. Misfits has apparently been a success for the site, but piracy likely ate into those numbers (since the whole thing had been available in the U.K. for over a year before the first series debuted here). BBC America has pursued a similar strategy with Doctor Who, to encouraging results. Hulu did not announce the dates both of these series will debut just yet, but it did mention the fall.

Update: In a post-session interview with me, Hulu's Andy Forssell, the company's SVP of development, said that he intends to produce another season of Battleground, but no deal yet exists for another season. However, he expects there to be another season, and since the show was often a top-25 show for the site, it would make sense for such a thing to happen.