Today, NBC Universal and News Corp launched the public beta version of Hulu.com, a website that contains ad-supported TV shows and episode clips that can be viewed for free. Not only can you watch whole episodes and clips, but you’ll also be able to embed them into other websites, youtube-style.
According to Hulu’s website, “Hulu offers current primetime shows like The Office, Prison Break, Bionic Woman, House and Bones, and episodes from TV classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Miami Vice, Arrested Development and more. We've also partnered with premier content owners like E! Entertainment, FUEL TV, SciFi Network and USA Networks to add to our growing collection of premium programming.”
Unfortunately, because this is just a beta version, gaining access to the videos isn’t as simple as going to hulu.com and searching for your favorite shows. The site requires you to log in and in order to do that, you need to request an invitation for an account. I submitted a request earlier today (as I’m sure many other people did) and aside from receiving an email telling me they received my request; I have yet to receive an actual invitation.
So while I sit here, tapping my mouse, impatiently awaiting an invite that may or may not come anytime soon, let’s talk about the ads. Variety reported that that the episodes will contain two minutes of commercials for every thirty minutes of episode. When you think about how many commercials you have to sit through when watching TV on an actual television, that’s really not that bad. As Hulu will eventually be including movies for online viewing, commercials will be included in those as well, similar to how it would be if you watched a movie airing on basic cable. Skipping over the ads is out of the question but that’s a small price to pay, considering the plethora of content we’ll supposedly be getting from this site.
Here’s an interesting quote from the Variety article, Should Hulu catch on, it could accelerate the shift of ad dollars to online from broadcast and cable TV. Forrester Research estimates that marketers will spend $471 million on online video advertising this year, with about that amount transferred directly from broadcast and TV ad budgets.
How will this affect us? Well, Hulu isn’t exactly the first website to offer ad-supported TV shows online but if it turns out to be as huge as its been hyped up to be and Variety is correct about ad dollars, this website could be a big help to series like Bionic Woman and 30 Rock, which despite being good shows, often get pushed down in the ratings due to their competitive timeslots on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Bionic Woman is up against ABC’s Private Practice, while 30 Rock has to compete against Survivor and Ugly Betty. If these series were to receive exceptionally high view-counts on Hulu, advertisers would most likely be more willing to throw money at them, thus securing their survival.
Hulu is essentially set up to be a huge success or a monumental failure (especially considering how much money has been invested in it). Looking at it optimistically, what NBC is doing will hopefully give internet TV viewing the boost it needs to become as popular and user-friendly as watching TV on your actual television is.
Below are some screenshots from Hulu.com’s website.
