Hulu chief: We’re still a start-up
Jason Kilar of Hulu.com got in five minutes of face time with CNBC viewers, saying his online TV service owes its success to one simple rule: “We obsess over every pixel.”
“We think that if we can obsess over quality and build a better mousetrap that good things will happen,” the Hulu CEO told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin on Tuesday. “Users will adopt the service, advertisers will find great value in it. And that’s what we’re seeing:
“We’ve gone from a handful of advertisers to over a hundred. When you take a look at the ramp of the business in terms of revenue, it’s vastly exceeding our expectations. So even in the midst of the current financial markets, we’re seeing business grow very aggressively.”
At the one-year mark, Hulu ranks No. 7 among online video sites. Remarkable, or unremarkable, depending on your perspective. Boorstin asked why Hulu with its vast popularity and publicity didn’t register higher.
“There’s a lot of headroom. … We’re a start-up.” Kilar put the ad-supported premium video market at $80 billion in the U.S. alone. “We’re eight months into it (ad sales). There are a lot of places this can go,” he said.
Asked why Google and its YouTube don’t just crush Hulu, Kilar smiled and said he’s asked that all the time.
“Our focus in very narrow. Which is exclusively focused on premium content. That’s the only thing we care about. … I think the user-generated content business is a great one, but it’s a separate one. You can see two (different online video) businesses doing very well.”
The follow-up question about YouTube getting into premium content via this week’s deal with MGM wasn’t asked.
Kilar said the feared cannibalization of network ratings with the emergence of full episodes offered online never happened. In fact, “Living room consumption of media is up (in the past year.) … Part of that is we make it so much easier to sample programs.”
As is required by law, he cited the example of “Saturday Night Live,” which turned from has-been to overnight sensation with the help of online video posts of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. Via the online clips on Hulu and nbc.com, Kilar said, SNL became “relevant seven days a week.”
Hard to believe, but it was only a year ago that the prematurely derided Hulu went into its public beta. The official launch came in March, but was old news to the millions of viewers using the streaming online video service. Then again, the monolithic YouTube didn’t even exist four years ago. Dog years have nothing on online video years, it seems.
’30 Rock’ debuts a week early on Hulu
Sarah Palin says no one watches “30 Rock,” but we know better. The Tina Fey show should emerge from ratings purgatory following the comic’s brilliant Palin imitations on “Saturday Night Live.”
The Fey-Palin clips are hugely popular online, so it turns out NBC made a smart moving sending the season premiere of “30 Rock” to Hulu for streaming a week ahead of the network broadcast. The early season premiere actually was announced back in early September, part of a package that included the new “Knight Rider” as well as the moderately rated “Lipstick Jungle,” “Chuck” and “Life.”
Props to NBC for following through on the sneak, instead of worrying it would dilute ratings for the network broadcast.
“30 Rock” co-star Alec Baldwin appeared on the “SNL” show with Palin, telling the governor she’s even hotter in person. Ain’t synergy grand. The Hulu display for the “30 Rock” sneak preview (episode “Do-Over”) features Fey, of course.
Networks have used online video sneaks for season premieres before, but this is a first for Hulu, which officially launched just as the ’07-08 season was ending.
Hulu gets 5 NBC sneak peaks
The season debuts of NBC’s “Knight Rider,” “Lipstick Jungle,” “Chuck,” “Life” and “30 Rock” all are set to roll out on Hulu a week before their network TV broadcasts.
“Knight Rider” should draw the most attention, as it’s a true series premiere. Expectations for the updated tribute to man-car love are kind of low coming off the poorly received “Knight Rider” TV movie a while back.
Is the network just tossing the show to the Hulu fan-boy population? “Give us a chance! We haven’t even aired!” producer Gary Scott Thompson bellows. Hey, maybe the show’s so hot that they’re confidently going for hitmaking word of mouth … maybe. The “Knight Rider” premiere should hit Hulu about Sept. 17.
The other shows are middle-of the-pack fare, relatively low-rated: “Chuck” finished 63rd for the 2007-08 TV season, followed by “Life” (74th), “Lipstick Jungle” (99th) and “30 Rock” (111th, lagging “Cavemen”).
The shows also will be available early on NBC.com. Networks have used sneaks for season premieres before, but this is a first for Hulu, which officially launched just as the ’07-08 season was ending.
Meanwhile, the scofflaw journal Torrent Freak reported Tuesday that the return of Fox’s “Prison Break” inspired more than a million video downloads. NBC double-pumped the show Monday night (two episodes). The big number comes from a “representative sample of BitTorrent sites,” the Freak says.
The “Prison Break” episodes have been up on Hulu since shortly after the broadcast, but viewers can’t save them or shift them over to iPhones, of course. International downloads always play an important part in these guesstimates of illegal downloads.
‘Daily Show,’ ‘Colbert’ report to Hulu
“The Daily Show,” the “most trusted name in fake news,” is just in to Hulu.
Jon Stewart’s long-running Comedy Central spoof on politics and current events joined the NBC Universal-News Corp. streaming video site today, with last night’s show front and center.
Complete episodes available for online viewing today on Hulu date back a month, to May 12.
Tagging along, as always, is “The Colbert Report,” a spoof of dumb-ass cable news commentators such as those found on News Corp.’s Fox News Network. Stephen Colbert developed his right-wing putz character on Stewart’s show.
Content provider Viacom says the “Daily Show” streams are tests, with other content apparently to follow. The shows now are available in full on comedycentral.com, which previously offered only clips, to the displeasure of legions.
Erik Flannigan, executive vice president of digital media at MTV Networks, told Reuters that the Hulu placement is a public service, sort of.
“Hulu in many ways may put the shows in front of some people who might be more casual viewers but who might be interested in what’s going on with the elections,” Flannigan said. Sounds ridiculous, but something like 20% of young adults have cited “The Daily Show” as their source for election news. (Reread paragraph for chilling confirmation of what you think you just read.)
“Daily Show” and “Colbert” were bitstream staples, which will remain the case for overseas fans. The episodes are available only to U.S. viewers.
Feel free to bombard your “I don’t get it” friends with emailed “Daily Show” clips. (Except me. Please.) Hulu is breaking out highlights that can be embedded and emailed.
For the streaming video site, it looks like the killer ap has arrived.
Remember way back when, when the online video elite all laughed at big media’s Hulu and its stupid name? Ho. Ho. Ho.
Hulu gets the last laugh … for now
Hulu’s come-one-come-all beta is over. The NBC Universal-Fox video streaming site officially went public Wednesday to another round of cheers from the media.
Funny to think back on last summer, when they all laughed. The odd name inspired hate posts from bloggers, who cited the wanna-be-hip handle as evidence the old media didn’t get it and never would.
Even operating in public beta mode, Hulu quickly emerged as the nexus for “premium” (professional) entertainment videos online. The yang to YouTube’s ying.
As part of this week’s grand opening, the site paraded out its list of content partners to date. They include Warner Bros. TV, Lionsgate, the NBA and NHL. Not CBS, as hoped for and rumored. Full list below.
Hulu said that in the past 30 days, over 5 million people viewed videos via the Hulu or its distribution network. The big partner sites in the net are AOL, MSN, Yahoo, MySpace and Comcast’s Fancast.com. But of course any site can present a Hulu video, via YouTube-style emedding code. Complete with the ads that the Hulu loop gets paid for.
Having product from Fox, NBC and the Universal studio gave Hulu much of its initial momentum, but credit also should go to the interface designers, who came up with a bitchen intuitive set of controls. When watching videos elsewhere, I’m looking in vain for Hulu’s dim-lights feature. The video interface feels like something out of Apple’s shop.
Too good to last? Silicon Alley Insider thinks Hulu is headed for a meltdown.
List of Hulu content providers after this word from our sponsors:
FOX, NBC Universal, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. Television Group, as well as Access Hollywood, AST Dew Tour, BNET, Bravo, Broadway Video, CenterStaging, Chic.tv, Chiller, CHOW, CNET, Comedy Time, Davis-Panzer Productions, E! Entertainment Television, ExerciseTV, FEARnet, Ford Models, Fox Atomic, Fox Movie Channel, Fox Reality, Fox Searchlight, Fox Sports, Fox TV Studios, Fuel TV, FX Networks, G4TV, Gamespot, Gamespy, Hidden Universe, IGN, Image Entertainment, Lionsgate, LX.TV, MEN7, Mojo, Movieola, My Network TV, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Digital Shorts, NBA, NBC Sports, NHL, Oxygen, Paley Media, Reveille, Salient Media, SciFi Channel, Shout! Factory, Sleuth Channel, SpaceRip, Speed, Sundance Channel, Taste TV, The Fight Network, The Golf Channel, The Onion, The Style Network, TV Guide, TVG, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox Television, Twentieth Television, Universal Pictures, USA Network, Versus, Vuguru, WatchMojo, Wine Library TV and World Wrestling Entertainment