Hulu: YouTube Killer?
p2pnet news | Advertising:- Hulu has arrived. Some tout it as The Video Advertising Answer, but others call it Clown Co.
Which is it?
On- or offline, advertising is quite literally part of the landscape and if it’s properly handled, there’s nothing wrong with it. Indeed, a significant number of ads have been so cleverly conceived and put together, they’ve almost reached the level of art.
It only becomes a problem when it becomes the main focus of attention; when advertisers resort to trickery and scams to force their products on you; and when they invade your privacy in a bid to find out more information about you, who you are where you are what you do what you do, all in the name of ‘targetting’.
Some of the worst abuses have shown up online, typified by many of the items which’ve appeared in Google AdSense, for example, and in much the same way the entertainment cartels want to control how product is distributed online, Google intends to say how, and by whom, it’s advertised, with videos – read YouTube – as primary delivery vehicles.
But there’s a major difference between what happens with the entertainment cartels and advertising. In the former case, there’s absolutely no competition but in the latter, there’s plenty, which means would-be advertisers have to pay attention.
Hulu creators NBC Universal and News Corp seem to have been listening and from various accounts, may be getting at least part of the formula right.
Hulu says it’s banking on being low key and Wired, having gone for a test drive, says:
Whether we were viewing episodes of NBC’s hit series The Office or a montage of footage from The Simpsons, there was some sort of advertising appearing alongside. While watching a short clip like SNL’s “Dick In a Box” we saw banner ads above the top of the player, right next to a brief synopsis and run-time information. But for longer videos, like a full episode of Heroes or a full-length film such as Weekend at Bernie’s, we saw a mixture of banner ads and pre- or mid-roll ads, which appear in the video stream itself.
But, “Even with its mid-roll ads, Hulu seems to keep its web audience in mind. For instance, while watching The Simpsons we saw three ads for Axe body spray over the course of an episode: One right after the title sequence, another about a third of the way in, and then a final ad right before the end of the show. The good news for viewers is that the ads are brief (30 seconds or less) and are clearly marked in the timeline. The end result plays out relatively seamlessly – even when the clip is embedded in a third-party site.”
Will it be a YouTube killer, though? Not according to early reports, says ScuttleMonkey on Slashdot, going on:
Although Hulu’s parent companies have done a lot of things right with the service, the scheduling leaves something to be desired. For the time being, the site will only feature five weeks worth of content for any given show. From there, it’s assumed that older content will get the boot in favor of newer episodes and movies. This isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for us, but for a lot of viewers this will prevent the service from becoming with online video Shangri-La they’d imagined. Furthermore, with the lack of user-generated content, it falls short of the end-all be-all site for online video.
Viewers are still going to go to YouTube and still click their ads, says the post, “but in terms of piracy a minor rebellion may have been quelled”.
Also See:
Hulu – Hulu — with commercial breaks, October 29, 2007
Wired – First Look: Hulu Combines Ease of Use, Content, Advertising, October 29, 2007
Slashdot – Hulu Launches With Few YouTube Killing Qualities, October 29, 2007
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October 30th, 2007 at 9:50 am
It can’t be viewed outside the usa can it?