Hulu

From wsuwiki

1 Overview
2 Hulu and How Free Content is the Future
3 Hulu's Model is Spreading
4 References

Overview

Hulu is an Adobe Flash based video website that streams full television episodes, some movies, and video clips. Hulu, LLC is co-owned by NBC Universal, News Corp., which each now have a 27% stake in Hulu, and with funding by Providence Equity Partners, which made a $100 million equity investment and holds a 19% stake. Recently, ABC, Inc. (Disney) also invested in Hulu, to take a 27% stake in the venture. Hulu was founded in March 2007. Currently Hulu's offerings include telvesion shows and movies from FOX, NBC Universal, Comedy Central, Lionsgate, MGM, MTV Networks, National Geographic, Paramount, PBS, Pictures Television, and Warner Bros. Since Disney has invested, users will soon have access to shows from ABC, Disney Channel, and possibly the ESPN family of networks. Disney will also be providing viewers access to classic Disney movies, television specials, and other content that the company owns. Hulu does reserve the right to start charging for certain premium features according to their terms of use.

Hulu and How Free Content is the Future

Hulu uses advertising to pay for the free content it provides. This concept is discussed in Chris Anderson's article, Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business, in Wired Magazine. In his article he discusses several free business models. Hulu uses the free business model of Advertising. Anderson describes this as "what's free: content, services, software, and more. Free to whom: everyone" Advertising. This free business model gives visiters to a website free access to whatever the site is providing but they are subject to advertisments. The advertisements may be during breaks in a video, before and after a video is played, or as banners and animation on the website that is providing the content.

The advertising model is attractive to users because they do not have to pay out of their pocket, they only "pay" with the time it takes to view the advertisements. This model is attractive to businesses because they are still making money from selling advertising space to companies that want to get their products and services seen by consumers. These companies that want to advertise their products and services are attracted to the advertising model because they have the potential to get their ads seen by the millions of people that are visiting a site to take advantage of its free offerings. Hulu, according to Wolfram Alpha - Hulu Search, is the 223rd ranked site on the Internet. It has about 5.1 million visitors per day and the homepage gets viewed 31 million times per day. Hulu has a substantial viewing audience for companies to show their products and services to and persuade the audience to buy their offerings.

For more information about free offerings being the future of business please visit the WSU Wiki article, Free Products, Better Business.

Hulu's Model is Spreading

The success and popularity of Hulu has caught the attention of other arenas of the entertainment industry. According to Brand Republic, a UK marketing, media and communications industries website, Epix, is a feature-length film streaming website funded by major US studios Lionsgate, Paramount, and MGM, which will stream blockbuster films in HD quality. It does differ from Hulu, in that it will be offered as a a premium television channel which will be packaged in with US cable bundles, but future versions may allow access to older films that are free due to the advertising that comes along with viewing the film. Epix is currently in private beta form.

Brand Republic also talks about music companies following the Hulu model. According to them, Vevo, is a Universal Music and YouTube backed venture slated to launch later this year. The company says it will be an online hub and database of music videos, hoping to make itself the MTV of the YouTube generation, putting the money back in music videos. Other major record labels are in talks to join into the venture, and Sony Music has already become a partner in Vevo. The music videos will be offered for free with advertisements, but according to the article, they plan to possibly sell keepsakes, albums and gig tickets through the site to not only make profit from advertisers, but also from the selling of products related to the artists people are listening to and watching their music videos.