Hulu Plus is still at an early stage of life, having launched just two months ago. So what content, at this early stage, are subscribers actually getting for the $10-per-month asking price? Not that much, it would seem.

Hulu Plus

Hulu Plus, in case you’re wondering, is the premium, paid-for, subscription service newly offered by Hulu. We knew it was on its way months before any official details were revealed.

Hulu Plus finally launched at the end of June, with the $10-per-month service designed to sit happily alongside the free Hulu.com website.

Hulu Plus brings Hulu to a whole range of devices beyond the computer, with the PS3 and Xbox 360 games consoles, and the Apple iPad and iPhone early recipients.

However, as great as all this sounds, what do you actually get for your money? Research firm One Touch Intelligence decided to find out at this very early stage in the life of Hulu Plus.

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Online video is still, relatively speaking, in its infancy. But it growing more popular, and the choices available to viewers are growing. Which could see online video to surpass broadcast TV by 2020, which is only a decade away.

Online Video

As much as those of us who write about online video would like to believe it is an ubiquitous and essential part of people’s lives, that isn’t quite the case yet. At least not a mainstream way, and when compared to traditional broadcast television.

Sure, YouTube is known and used the world over, but the Google site’s content is usually short and sweet. Which is why U.S. viewers currently only watch an average of 22 minutes of online video a week. Which compares to 30 hours of broadcast TV.

Still, things are changing. Slowly for now, but possibly speeding up in the near future.

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The Web as a mainstream tool accessible to everyone has changed things for copyright owners. Whether they choose to embrace the Internet or not could determine their survival through the current revolution. But it could well be too late, and social networking could be to blame.

The Writing’s On The Wall

Only the most ignorant among us can’t see that something big needs to happen in terms of copyright and ownership rights. Whether it be music, movies, or video games, the Internet has opened up a new market which needs to have its potential tapped rather than impeded at every turn.

The record companies and movie studios have had since the emergence and eventual shutdown of Napster to realize the writing is on the wall. But rather than accept the inevitability of the need for change, and embracing the Web as a means of distribution, they’re hanging on to their dying business model by their fingertips.

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While Web video is growing on a daily basis, much of this content is devoid of any monetization, meaning content producers and video sites alike aren’t making any revenue for their efforts. Is this a situation likely to change any time soon?

Over the last few months here on Web TV Wire, we’ve looked at the seemingly never-ending debate as to whether online video can be a profitable business by way of monetization in some depth.

Google and YouTube

Most of this has been regarding YouTube, and Google’s attempts at making some of the $1.65 billion it invested in the video sharing site back by use of advertising.

Google has considered the use of pre-roll and post-roll advertising on videos, but that’s only possible on videos that have been checked for copyright violations – about 4% of the total video content uploaded to YouTube.

We then asked if pre-vetting all videos would help Google’s monetization cause, but argued that bringing this measure in would do more harm than good in terms of user satisfaction and viewer numbers.

We all know that Web video is increasing at a mammoth rate month on month. But new research suggests that not only is the Internet being used as an extension to the TV, it could be replacing it at quite a rate.

Computers and the Web are becoming an increasingly important part of how television shows are being distributed. Whether it be via legal methods such as Hulu and Joost, or illegal peer-to-peer sharing of torrents, the trend is on the rise.

Online Video Up

We’ve already seen online video viewing as a whole grow massively over the first half of 2008, with comScore data for May showing 12 billion videos were watched in the US alone.

This figure obviously includes all forms of videos, with YouTube being the highest percentage of views. But even in the niche of episodic content, especially prime time shows such as Lost and Heroes, the figures are stacking up.

Hulu is one of the leading lights in the fight to get traditional television, and Web television to converge. But as it comes up to it first anniversary, how is it actually doing?

Solutions Research Group recently conducted a study in to the state of Hulu, as reported by TVWeek. It shows the demographic who are watching, and the customer satisfaction ratings.

Struggling To Gain Traction

Most importantly, it seems that despite being heavily promoted, the majority of Americans still don’t know about the Fox/NBC-owned Hulu, with just 15% of the online US population having ever heard of the site.

Online video is already massively popular in its many forms. However, if the latest predictions from Cisco Systems is to be believed, it is likely to be the dominant force on the Web by 2012.

The company has published its first Visual Networking Index, (PDF) and the results show that while video currently already accounts for a quarter of all Internet traffic, that figure is set to rise year-on-year until it surpasses 50% by 2012.