Hulu passes Yahoo! in video share
Hulu blew past Yahoo! in the online video horse race in March, settling into a distant third in overall share. Hulu’s showing in March was up roughly 20 percent over February’s count, according to comScore’s monthly report.
Still, YouTube hasn’t much to fear from the red-hot News Corp.-NBC Universal site.
Google’s video sites (almost all YouTube) gobbled up 41 percent of the U.S. online video market, comScore reported. That’s almost 5.9 billion videos viewed by 100 million unique viewers at YouTube.
Fox Interactive Media had 3 percent of the action, compared with 2.6 for Hulu. Yahoo had 2.3 percent while Microsoft computed 2.0 percent.
Overall, U.S. online video viewing was up 11 percent compared with February, with 14.5 billion videos servered.
Hulu’s minutes-spent percentage (4.9 percent) almost doubled its videos watched share (2.6 percent), not surprising because the site specializes in broadcast-length fare.
Some other fun facts from comScore:
- Almost 78 percent of the U.S. Internet audience watched online videos.
- The average viewer viddied almost 5 1/2 hours of content.
- The average online video clocked in at 3.4 minutes.
- Yahoo! retained its third-place showing in unique visitors, but Hulu is close behind.
Hulu’s iPhone app reportedly near
Hulu engineers reportedly are hard at work on an iPhone application that should arrive within a few months.
The influential blog Silicon Alley Insider sourced a “plugged in” industry executive as saying the Hulu app was “badass,” up to the standards of that slick online video site.
The move has long been speculated, but confirmation would be a big deal in that goldrush space where the mobile phone and online video worlds collide.
YouTube always has come preloaded with iPhones. TV.com and Joost also have iPhone conduits. The iTunes video offerings are there as well. But the addition of the content-rich Fox-NBC Universal stream brings another dimension to the mobile phone of choice. That’s yet another reason for wireless device shoppers to go with the iPhone.
The Hulu app for iPhones and iPod Touch will work with wi-fi and the AT&T 3G network, the Insider said. If the app doesn’t work on the slower Edge connection, that’ll leave out all the early adopters who haven’t upgraded, giving Apple another reason to be happy.
Soon, that iPhone-watching distracted driver barreling down the road toward you will be enjoying “The Office” instead of lesser crap. Fun!
YouTube turns pro with team of losers
YouTube just unveiled its premium content redesign, bringing viewers a motley assortment of TV shows and feature films.
The user-generated-content giant announced the move as it trotted out previously reported content deals with Sony and MGM, as well as a few lesser pacts.
In a week in which YouTube showed its strength and great worth — with the newsmaking videos of the disgusting duo from Domino’s and the delightful spinster singer from Scotland — you hate to see the online video giant lower itself with this stinky serving of Hollywood leftovers.
As anticipated, the TV offerings come on a page called Shows and films can be found under Movies.
Shortly after the redesign went live, the movie page was featuring “Carrie,” “St. Elmo’s Fire
and “Slacker.” Mostly, these are movies you couldn’t sell for a quarter at a flea market. And they have ads.
To view movies with R-rated content, viewers were told to log in via YouTube or Google. Once done, they then were required to link their Yahoo and Google accounts. Yuck and suck. Show of hands, please, for those who need more Google in their lives.
The Shows page had “Married With Children,” the current CBS series “Harper’s Island,” “The Addams Family” and “The Dana Carvey Show.”
YouTube’s move to integrate full-length professional content makes sense for financial and viewership reasons, but to premiere the service with such a half-assed library just screams: “We can’t even begin to compete with Hulu.”
Susan Boyle: They all laughed
Let’s hear it for Susan Boyle, the spinster from Scotland who blew away Simon Cowell and the other judges on “Britain’s Got Talent.”
The plump and disheveled Boyle took the stage Saturday to eye rolling from the “American Idol”-like show’s judges. Hoots and jeers from the audience. The 47-year-old said she wanted to be like British musical theater goddess Elaine Paige, bringing on another chorus of abuse. Then Susan Boyle opened her mouth to sing …
There are several versions of the segment on YouTube — all blocked from embedding so view the Susan Boyle video here (HQ). This appears to be a monster YouTube event, with millions upon millions of views so far (did I actually count 20 million?).
Did it all really go down like that, with the judges truly stunned and their jaws dropping and all? I want to believe. But even if not, this is extraordinary online video, as viral as it comes. Too bad we can only see it for the first time once.
YouTube flirting with Sony Pictures
YouTube’s quest for real Hollywood content continues. Ongoing talks with Sony Pictures could result in full-length streaming movies for the site — a big improvement over the watery content deal reached the other day for short-form content from Disney/ABC/ESPN.
Of course, Sony won’t be giving up its latest boxoffice hits. The studio’s film showcase crackle.com serves up fare such as “Groundhog Day,” “Shakes the Clown” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.” While we wouldn’t mind revisiting “Shakes” or “Neighbors,” there’s little but moldy catalog stuff on the Sony site. That’s what would come to YouTube, probably in limited numbers and perhaps unspooled on a branded Sony player.
Still, this seems reason enough for YouTube to get excited. The user-posted-video site, which spent years alienating Hollywood’s suits, is finding it tough getting anything of value out of would-be premium partners such as Sony. YouTube’s upcoming redesign prominently features movie and TV content.
YouTube hasn’t been able to monetize its endless user-generated content — beloved by the public but considered trash by the ad buyers — and is desperate to do something about its money-losing ways. Credit Suisse analysts just projected an annual YouTube loss of $470 million.
