Hulu Plus
Posted by Steve Fravel on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 · 
·
Hulu has added a new product. According to the Hulu online options, episodes of programs from NBC, Fox and ABC from this past season in addition to a catalog of other programming is available by subscription. This new wrinkle in the service is called Hulu Plus. Hulu has priced the service at $9.99 per month.
Recent episodes are still available as free content, but carry commerical advertising. Hulu Plus will allow multiple viewings for episodes that cover a longer period of time, including earlier seasons.
Hulu Plans Subscription Service
Posted by Steve Fravel on Thursday, April 22, 2010 · ·
The popular and trendy on-line video site Hulu has released information concerning a test of subscription service that is likely to begin near the end of May.
According to the subscription proposal; the plan calls for Hulu to continue offering “free” access to the five most recent episodes of programs like Lost, Saturday Night Live, Grey’s Anatomy, Parenthood and Glee.
Those who may want to “dig deeper” in time and look at older episodes from previous seasons would be required to pay a $9.95 monthly access fee. This fee would allow the viewer to choose from a more complete catalog of program episodes. The pay service is reported to be named “Hulu Plus.”
Hulu which is jointly owned by NBC Universal, New Corp and the Walt Disney Company is currently second in monthly video stream consumption to the number one ranked YouTube service.
The subscription for Hulu is a major change in the way in which Hulu has been doing business over the past two years. The Hulu owners are concerned that too much free access to content will dilute the value of on-line television in a manner similar to the music industry whose revenues dropped due to free access to songs on-line.
Comcast, GE Strike a Deal on NBC Universal
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, December 7, 2009 · ·
It’s official. Late last week, Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, announced an agreement to acquire NBC Universal from the General Electric (GE) Company. The deal valued NBC Universal at about $30 billion. As expected, the agreement gives Comcast 51%, and G.E. 49% ownership of the new joint entity which will not only produce content, but also control consumer’s access to it.
Comcast will contribute its cable channels to the joint venture, which include Versus, the Golf Channel and E Entertainment, worth about $7.25 billion, and will pay G.E. about $6.5 billion in cash, for a total of $13.75 billion.
Most of NBC’s value is in its cable channels — USA, Bravo, SyFy, CNBC and MSNBC. These networks, along with the channels that Comcast will contribute to the joint venture, will compose 82% of the company’s cash flow. The NBC network and Universal Studios will account for only a small portion of the joint company’s cash flow. Read more
Real-Time Apps Double Viewer Traffic
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, November 2, 2009 · ·
A research study has noted a new trend: less TV and media downloading and more real-time Internet use.
Sandvine, the Ontario, Canada-based broadband network company, reports that there has been dramatic increase in consumer behavior towards real-time “experience now” applications (i.e. YouTube and Hulu.com) and away from bulk download “experience later” applications. In fact, real-time entertainment has almost doubled its share of total Internet traffic to 26.6% in 2009, up from 12.6% in 2008. Read more
Hulu May Start Charging in 2010
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, October 26, 2009 · ·
News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey spoke at an industry event last week on the future of the business, where he maintained that consumers need to pay for online broadcast content.
“I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value,” Carey said. “Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.” (Hulu is jointly owned by NBC Universal, News Corp., The Walt Disney Company and Providence Equity Partners.) Read more
YouTube and Hulu Optimize for TV Viewing
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, June 8, 2009 · ·
Online video portals YouTube and Hulu both recently launched alternative platforms, promising a viewing experience where the user can sit back and enjoy video content from the couch rather than the computer chair.
At its core, YouTube XL is a streamlined version of the Web site optimized for the TV screen. It’s still run in the browser, although it has the look and feel of a native application.
The site is designed to be viewed from across the room, and the typical clutter — suggested videos, comments and ads — is absent from this version (although I can’t imagine that advertising is not part of YouTube’s XL’s long-term strategy). Read more
