Three snippets of recent buzz about Hulu:
- Hulu has attracted advertisers used to the TV advertising model (Alley Insider 11/10/08)
- Hulu is easier to use when searching for TV and movies. YouTube is a mess (NYT 11/10/08)
- YouTube is playing catchup to Hulu by offering brand name content - announces MGM film distribution deal (Wired blog 11/10/08)
Six observations about Hulu:
- Hulu is a replica of TV. No user-generated surprises, all programming has been broadcast traditionally.
- Strange to say, but Hulu's success is based on copying the old world broadcast TV business model. This reinforces the fact that advertisers like the plain vanilla advertising model.
- Hulu gets complete support from the media industry because it's one of them. YouTube / Google is still sparring with Viacom in court.
- Hulu is evolving naturally as a mass media, not a social media, model. It says a lot that the masses will go to Hulu when they are tired of the amateur quality of social media.
- Cable companies, a natural play for developing their own Hulu-like content distribution systems, hesitate to break their lucrative cable subscription fee model. Online media is perceived as a threat, just like newspapers thought last decade.
- Consumers have gotten used to fighting content distribution bottlenecks. Hulu delivers what they want free.