Hulu is celebrating its first 12 months in operation, and a successful year it has been. But will that success continue? And if so, what is the ultimate future for Hulu?
Hulu’s First Year
Hulu launched this time last year in beta to a positive yet subdued reaction. The people in the business were excited but no-one outside of the Web video bubble really gave two hoots.
But that’s slowly and surely changed, with word of mouth (there’s been no formal advertising) seeing the NBC and Fox owned service gaining massively in an already crowded online video sector over the past 12 months.
The first anniversary of the site’s arrival also brought with it high profile articles in The New York Times and USA Today, both of which are very positive about the venture.
Impressive Site Stats
The statistics speak for themselves. The most recent Nielsen Online Web viewing figures show that Hulu generated more than 142 million streams during September in the U.S. They’re worldwide figures as well because of those blasted territorial copyright restrictions.
That makes Hulu the sixth biggest streaming site in the U.S. at the moment, behind more established contenders such as Yahoo, MSN, and Nickelodeon. YouTube is of course way out in front of everyone with 5 billion monthly streams.
But as we’ve explored before, the combination of a better business model and professional television content actually means Hulu is more likely to win in the end, even without the impressive viewing figures.
The Business Of Advertising
Advertising is actually proving a winner on Hulu, with the television content now transferred to the Web only having one advert per break inflicted on it, something that is very popular with viewers.
But that one ad per break can be better targeted to viewers and the statistics show a very high response rate to adverts on the site. That is, the companies that paid for a slot saw real benefits in doing so.
At the moment, 93 percent of Hulu viewers are happy with the amount of ads they see, but surely the rate will be increased at some point in the future? Especially if the site becomes ultra-successful as someone’s going to have to pay for that bandwidth.
The Future Of Hulu?
I can’t see Hulu ever reaching popularity levels approaching YouTube standards but it doesn’t need to as it’s a completely different animal, and one that is proving to television companies that the Web can be an alternative distribution method for programming.
The first year has been a brilliantly successful one where the company has built itself from the ground up by word of mouth. I’m guessing the second year will bring Hulu in to the mainstream, and that will be exciting to watch.
