Are Content Providers Slowly Killing Hulu?
After a period of dominance, the once mighty Hulu is looking fragile. The website is still not making money and is now facing the threat of losing premium content as providers decide to do their own thing. The decision by Viacom to remove two very popular shows from the Hulu schedule shows that the real power is with the networks, and that Hulu on its own is little more than a shop window. The content providers can on a whim take away what makes Hulu great.
Is Hulu reaching its sell by date?
The Viacom episode just enforces to Hulu what the networks have been slowly doing to the tv website. Slowly getting more stringent with what they allow Hulu to show, removing some shows and allowing fewer episodes to be streamed online. Viacom have discovered that they can make more money in these hard times by removing Hulu from the equation and keeping the shows on its own websites.
Gene Liebel, of digital ad agency Huge said:- “You pay more for niche audiences and targeted networks than on generalized sites like Hulu. Hulu charges less for the ads, so Viacom’s sales people are out there being undercut by their own content.”
It seems that Hulu has served its purpose, launched initially to try and cut down on the rampant online piracy by providing the content for free online. So popular has the site been that it can now attract over 44 million viewers every month. But now that Hulu has achieved these goals the providers now dont want to share so much revenue with Hulu.
Arash Amel of Screen Digest commented:- “It was a very interesting platform when it launched, but in terms of innovation it’s going to be very challenging. The other big media content partners who aren’t the main three [backers] have woken up to the fact that they can probably do it themselves. You will see some of the bigger brands pulling back and say, ‘We’re going to make our own versions of a mini-Hulu and license the player instead of giving you the content,’ ” said Amel.
Hulu currently hosts the shows and sells the ads giving a 70% cut of revenue to the providers while pocketing the remaining 30%. If Hulu were to reduce its take it would be similar to commiting Hari-Kari as it still cannot make a profit currently. So what does Hulu do? It may have to become more of a media platform, allowing the providers to embed their own video players on the site and have control of the advertising.
Of course Hulu is still planning to roll out a subscription service and charge for premium content, however, the initial aim of reducing piracy will be negated by this action. One thing is for sure, the Hulu you see (if it still exists) in a few months will be a very different animal.
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[...] After a period of dominance, the once mighty Hulu is looking fragile. The website is still not making money and is now facing the threat of losing premium content as providers decide to do their own thing. The decision by Viacom to remove two very popular shows from the Hulu schedule shows that the real power is with the networks, and that Hulu on its own is little more than a shop window. The content providers can on a whim take away what makes Hulu great. View the Original article [...]