Online video is growing ever more popular, particularly in the United States. But it’s YouTube which continues to drive market penetration, with Hulu leading the rest of the growing pack.

Online Video Viewer Stats

Online video is showing no signs of slowing down in growth. As the latest comScore statistics for December 2009 show.

178 million Internet users in the U.S. watched online video during the last month of the decade. Which equates to almost 87 percent market penetration.

Between them they watched over 33 billion videos in December, or the equivalent of 187 videos each. The average length of video now stands at 4.1 minutes, up from 3.5 minutes around the same time last year.

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Hulu’s preposterous exclusion of Boxee has now made it to Congress, with the head of NBC being directly asked about the continuing situation. Could this finally lead to an end of the fight or will the networks and cable companies dig their heels in further?

Boxee Vs. Hulu History

It was almost a year ago when Hulu decided to pull its content from Boxee. TV.com also lost out. The decision was made after the networks and cable companies declared they didn’t like the way their premium content was being viewed on television via Boxee via Hulu.

In essence, they were only happy with Hulu while it remained a computer-only affair. Boxee enabled Hulu to be experienced on TVs and that just wouldn’t do as it may influence people’s decision to cancel their cable subscriptions in favor of online video.

Boxee responded by issuing a workaround to the Hulu block. Which Hulu then plugged, only for Boxee to unplug it. The cat and mouse game has continued since then, with some Boxee users able to watch Hulu programming and others not.

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Hulu has entered 2010 on a high, serving one billion videos in December 2009. And yet the company is facing new challenges, namely how to make the service a profitable one. Paid options are definitely on the way but it looks likely there’ll always be a free option.

Hulu – From Zero To Hero

After a short beta, Hulu launched fully in early 2008 with few people predicting it would become the success it has done. But the last two years has seen the service grow in popularity by a huge amount, with only a slight dip in the middle of last year.

But that trend now looks to have been reversed, with Hulu once again growing. With Disney now on board, and content partners and sponsors increasing in number, things are definitely looking good for Hulu.

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The iPad has now been revealed, but its place in the grand scheme of things and how Apple intends to make it an indispensable product aren’t that clear. Knowing that some online video services will be coming to the iPad would be a start. Hulu, anyone?

iPad Arrives

Apple has now shown its hand, unveiling the iPad, its new tablet PC, a few days ago. I’ve already looked at what the iPad means for online video, although the jury is still out on whether the device will actually mean anything, certainly in the short-term.

Apple failed to truly capitalize on its media event on Wednesday, with very few content partners, and only YouTube and MLB.tv for online video streaming. But that doesn’t mean more won’t follow, especially by way of apps created to take advantage of the iPad’s bigger screen.

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Is the free online video ride coming to an end? After months of hints and speculation, YouTube is experimenting with its first paid content. And Hulu is strongly rumored to be preparing to roll out a metered subscription service for some shows in the near future.

Paid Content

It would appear all media industries are starting to realize Web advertising dollars will only go so far, so the newspaper industry, music industry, and TV and film industries are looking at alternative ways of making the Internet pay.

Both YouTube and Hulu have been rumored to be seeking to add paid content to their line ups for a while, and while the Google-owned YouTube is now experimenting with this in a small way, Hulu is making bigger, more longterm plans.

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It cannot be denied that Hulu has had a good 2009, full of growth and innovation. But 2009 is now at an end, and 2010 is going to see Hulu facing new challenges. What will the new year hold for the free online television service?

Hulu On The Rise

Hulu has had a fairly rapid rise from being an also-ran to a competitor. The American public – who after all are the only ones allowed to access the service – has taken to it well enough for it to now be considered mainstream.

2009 has seen Hulu rise to the number two spot for video views in the U.S. and then cement that position with impressive growth. OK, so it’s a long way behind YouTube in number one but the chances of the Google-owned site being caught are zero.

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Vevo, the Hulu for Music videos which has the backing of YouTube (and obviously Google) and three of the four major record labels, has now launched. And it’s kinda working. However, there are still question marks over whether it can succeed. And actually, who, why, and what is it for?

Vevo

Vevo is a joint venture between Sony Music and the Universal Music Group, with the backing of YouTube – probably because it had to play ball in order not to lose music videos from YouTube altogether.

Rumors abound for months of a Hulu for music, all happening against the backdrop of the major record labels negotiating new licensing deals with YouTube. The plans were cemented in April and Vevo launched on time on December 9.

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