BROADCAST/CABLE

With the storied New York Yankees facing off against the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies, Fox Sports has a potentially compelling matchup in baseball’s World Series that should drive strong TV ratings.

All News Corp’s Fox needs is close games, a full seven-game series and Mother Nature to cooperate and it could see strong revenue, analysts said. (Reuters10/27)

USA’s “White Collar” attracted 5.37 million viewers to its premiere at 10 p.m. Friday. The show averaged 2.18 million viewers in the 25-to-54 demographic group and 1.79 million in the 18-to-49 category. Mediaweek (10/26)

Television industry execs who complain that Hulu is undermining current models haven’t seen the business plan, says CEO Jason Kilar. Some 50% of Hulu’s content has never been available in the living room in the past year, and therefore no threat to the TV, he says. (Iwantmedia10/28, Broadcasting & Cable 10/27)

What a difference a year makes. Around this time in 2008, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar was the belle of the online video ball, and had audiences rapt as he talked about his obsession with providing a good consumer experience.

Flash-forward to this week’s CTAM cable conference, and Kilar is now defending his business, telling Broadcasting & Cable, “I like to say that I’m a capitalist,” and that he’s not “giving [premium content] away for free.”

Hulu’s TV network owners, feeling the heat from lower upfront ad dollars, a viewing audience that is migrating to new methods of TV consumption, and changing standards of success, have been quite vocal about their desire for Hulu to make more money. Last week, News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey caused a Twitter panic when he said that he “supposes” Hulu will start charging by 2010.

Hulu’s fewer-is-better ad model is also facing heat from the cable companies and their TV Everywhere initiatives, which will likely bring the same number of ads for a show online as there are on TV. Kilar has said Hulu supports authentication efforts, but they must “have a strong user experience.”

Having met Kilar, and seen how he’s grown Hulu over the past year, we wouldn’t bet against him. Hopefully, if he does have a plan, his corporate parents will keep trusting him.

I had the opportunity to attend an interesting lecture last night by Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu and fellow UNC j-school alum (go heels).

If you’re not familiar with it (and you should be), Hulu.com brings together video from more than 230 content partners, including FOX, NBC Universal, ABC and Comedy Central.

This content is then made available at our every beck and call – for free. Since its inception in early 2007, Hulu has welcomed more than 38 million users and joined hands with 250 Fortune 500 advertisers. It is the second most popular video site on the Internet (behind YouTube, the mega-giant).

If you think that sounds like drastic growth, here’s the reality laid out by Kilar:

-       95% of all songs downloaded last year were not paid for

-       More video has been uploaded to YouTube in the last 2 months than if ABC, NBC, and CBS had been airing new content  24/7/365 since 1948 (when ABC began)

-       In 18 months, Hulu attracted more users (38 million to be exact) than the combined subscriber base of the nation’s two leading cable companies

The average person would point to the advent of the Internet for these surprising statistics. In Kilar’s words, “It’s not about the Internet. It’s about the customer. The Internet is just a means. It’s just a tool to deliver a much better customer experience.”

At the core, this is about convenience and user satisfaction. “In the end, customers are going to be served and be served very well,” Kilar said.

So what does that mean for the future of the media? Here’s what Kilar says we can look forward to:

-       Media will be what you want, when you want, how you want it

-       It will be in real-time (no more waiting for yesterday’s news)

-       It will be transparent and held accountable

-       It will give power and participation to the people (more interactivity!)

-       It will offer advertising that is actually relevant to its users and works well for marketers

It’s looking pretty good don’t you think?

Is there anything you would add to this list? Here’s a better question. How are we as communicators going to execute all of the above in conjunction with emerging technology?

It would have been great to go to the Hollywood Radio and Television Society (HRTS) Digital Chiefs luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza with Bob Iger, Disney, Jason Kilar, Hulu, Jonathan Miller, News Corp, Chad Hurley, YouTube, and Chris Anderson, Wired, but I just couldn’t get down to LA today.  So I did the very next best thing and tuned into the live streaming 12:45-2.  Free for HRTS members and a fee for guests, live streaming truly is the next best thing to being there.  I tweeted as fast as I could at #digitalchiefs (which was the announced hastag), eventhough later Jason Kilar urged the audience to check #hrts for the tweets.  Hope they check #digitalchiefs too Here’s the video, the press coverage and below our summary:

Bob Iger, Disney
Discussed future of media, focused on monetization, media is following consumer onto new platforms but will online ads ever be as compelling as tv ads in changing consumer behavior (or will it remain a nuisance), asked about insurgence vs. incumbence – whether innovation can be done in-house or does it need to be bought from others who have created it (e.g. Pixar) and the rise in pay wall proposals and virtual goods microtransactions.  Anderson admitted to buying his kids toys for their Club Penguin avatars.  Cited stats:  took tv 13 years to reach 50mm, took FB 9m to get 100mm members, 400mm videos streamed on Hulu last month.

Chris Anderson, Author, Free
Got the attention of the audience when he said you can read the entire WSJ online for free if you search for it via Google.  So much for Murdoch’s pay wall. Discussed if its digital, sooner or later it’s going to be free, freemium is the way to go, give away 90% and upsell to 10%, or market with free and sell attention to advertisers, iTunes is selling convenience, packaging, trust, you get your time back by using iTunes, segment by price/time sensitivity,  class product/audience segmentation some will pay some won’t, hybrid world of free v paid, free for reach, customer acquisition, transition from selling content to service around content, free sampling replaces advertising, products sells itself.  Regarding compelling game-changing trends on the horizon, mentioned games as a service (XBLA..), iPhone apps, and Ning for niche social networks.

Chad Hurley, YouTube
YouTube is run by engineers and discovery remains a primary key challenge, how do you categorize so much video, it’s an issue of metadata.  YouTube is a hub/platform for video consumption but will never be a social network, pushes out to all relevant services, e.g. FB. Introducing more ad formats to help partners to earn more money to create better content for our users, enhancing the ecosystem, creating a substainable business, relevance drives Google’s ad business, great opportunity for transactions on YouTube, can rent or subscribe to something, making available to all partners large and small.  Hulu helped YouTube, its great product showed advertisers want to be in this space, made preroll more acceptable.

Jonathan Miller, News Corp/MySpace
There is continual need for reinvention, do it in a way not to lose who you are, bringing MySpace back to its media roots, continue to innovate, make product relevant, can’t play catch up, market keeps moving, what are the new behaviors that are relevant  who fit who we are.  New media companies release revision several times a day in response to audience sentiment.  That practice is unheard of in traditional media but necessary.  Safeguard privacy but know your users, there is a generational difference, younger generation understands the tradeoff, ok being watched if it gets me what I want.  Online CPMs will never rival network CPMs but will see higher CPMs in the right environments (from $0.40 to $1 but not to $50 for UGC).  The key issue to focus on is that the cost structure of producing content must come down.  Regarding compelling game-changing trends is the rise of premium video, apps and real time web (Google search is not real time).  Lionshare of web traffic is to portals for email checking, but many do go direct to FB.  Days of portal not behind us, 50% of $ and traffic still through portals.  Content providers should get more money and distributors less (Iger disagreed saying maybe 70% is too much).

Jason Kilar, Hulu
Huge fan of Twitter search.  Measures Twitter sentiment every 20 minutes, uses it as a real-time lab and makes changes based on responses, starting to use choose your own ad (diet v sugar soda), feedback on Twitter was users like the control, and the opt-in ads get higher attention.  Answering Iger’s question – will anything replace 30 sec golden standard on tv, yes, 30 second online, Nielsen asked consumer test group that watch ad online and on tv – did you remember brand, message, think more favorably, intent to purchase, ad/brand recall 2x online to tv, Kilar explained because consumer makes a conscious choice to watch online they are more engaged from the start (Iger joked – you mean I could understand plot of Lost more if I watch it online – big laughs), didn’t want Hulu to be Tokyo at night, went for a clean UI with small ad load, the recent increase in tv ad load is the cause of rise of DVR, you can charge twice the CPM with less ad load, ad inventory twice as effective, greater SOV, $57-70B ad market related to premium video, transaction and EST much smaller market, Flight of Conchords is a good candidate for subscription, for video content can’t substitute 30 Rock for another show, this lack of substitution allows you to do different things with your business models.

Post note:  Many thanks to Chris Anderson, Editor, Wired who emailed me these comments on this post:  ”Thanks! Great work on the Twitter coverage; I read every tweet. You’re fast AND good!”  Posting immediately does has its advantages.  For more, check out: LA Times, Variety, Scott Kirsner and his audio.

According to readwriteweb, Face book has launched the interactive real-time update  platform.   My comments  are  that high quality video provider Hulu and others can leverage the interactive and social networks and begin web casting content targeted at the online demographic immediately.  The interactive distribution network in now in place.  This should create much larger audiences.

According to Mike Shields, Mediaweek, Hulu, online high quality video distributor will stream the concert June 2, 2009 in prime time.  Mark this day as the beginning of the end of television.   The distribution of high quality video content on the Internet synchronously will create demand which is a new twist to a channel that has been used primarily as a second or tertiary, way to communicate.   The timing is right for this experiment to provide an ROI that is attractive for further investment.

One investment overdue is an advertising platform as rich or richer than the content provided by Hulu.   The opportunities to interact with products using  advertising  media built in Flash and Flex technologies coupled with the ability to customize and buy the product at the same time is a new frontier creating all types of  business models including revenue sharing.   So, Hulu while you are forming amazing alliances with content providers also look at ADOBE or other partner to take those ads to the next level.  You’ll be glad you did.

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

If you any doubts about how the mainstream media is playing us, then here’s the proof that they indeed are.  It’s easy to see when you take a look at Hulu. Most of the uniformed world think FOX (News Corp.) and NBC/GE are “enemies”  but we see that they’re working together to suck the air out of independent media content available on the web.

Hulu–”An evil plot to destroy the world.”  I didn’t originate this description; Hulu did. It’s in their ad which features the obnoxious Denis Leary jabbering away about TV content turning your mind to mush and snarking at a “brain dead” (those are the ad’s words) geek who’s getting a stream of green stuff passed into his ear.  Before he’s through, Leary says that the folks at Hulu are  “aliens” and then winds up with the tag line, “Hulu…an evil plot to destroy the world…Enjoy.”

The ad is up at the company blog under the title “The Evil Plot Continues.”  Go see for yourself…(and be sure to “click” to see the full ad after the initial clip is over or click here for the video without the blog post.).  This week, Hulu has released a “Video Panel widget”:

To continue to deliver on our mission to connect audiences with their favorite content wherever they are — or, as Denis Leary would say, on their “bliggety blogs, facey spaces and tweety pages” — we are releasing a new embeddable product this week: the Video Panel widget.

The ad is supposed to be a cool joke aimed at the younger crowd, but in reality, it may not just a joke!  A couple of weeks ago I happened to be watching CNBC and caught an interview with the young CEO who was talking about how successful Hulu had become and how it would be even more successful as it closes in on YouTube, which is currently the top video site.

And who’s behind Hulu?  According to Hoovers (with my bolding):

Hulu Company Description

When the rich and famous name their offspring, anything is possible. NBC and FOX had a digital baby. And they called it Hulu. Initially formed as a joint venture between NBC Universal (a unit of GE) and News Corp. (the parent of FOX), Hulu.com is a video site that features video from more than 100 content providers. Offerings include TV shows from FOX and NBC, as well as from subsidiary cable channels such as Bravo and the SCI FI Channel. Hulu also shows films from studios including Sony and MGM. Content — all total, some 900 TV series and full-length movies– is streamed on demand, free of charge the day after its broadcast debut. After a nearly five-month long beta version, Hulu.com was launched in 2008.

And, there’s another player now: Disney/ABC.

Disney Buys Into Hulu. YouTube Should Be Worried.  (4/30)

As the initial exclusivity for NBC and Fox content expires, Hulu will be adding Disney/ABC videos and TV shows to its distribution mix as well. Hulu is becoming the preferred distribution channel for the big media companies. And it is succeeding in attracting the fickle Web audience. This should worry YouTube, which is still casting about for a business model that will pay for its enormous storage and bandwidth costs. The media companies cannot ignore YouTube just yet, but by strengthening Hulu they can give it their best content first.

A couple of days earlier, this article provided some extra background:

Hulu Now The Number Three U.S. Web Video Site. Soon To Be Number Two.  (4/28)

Just last month, we wrote that Hulu had gained some 10 million viewers to become the fourth largest video portal on the web. Now, it’s slain another rival to the list: Yahoo, to move into #3 — at least in terms of videos viewed.

To be clear, the new March U.S. numbers released by comScore show that Hulu is still slightly behind Yahoo’s video properties when it comes to unique viewers. But the NBC and Fox-backed Hulu should pass it any day now in that category as well. Meanwhile, the number two player, Fox Interactive Media (which runs MySpace), is slipping just as quickly as Hulu is rising in videos viewed. It could well be as soon as this month when Hulu moves into the number two web video position.

Needless to say,  I wondered about the name. Silly me for thinking it was a take-off on “hula” or something Hawaiian. NOOOOOOOOOO, it’s actually a Chinese name! From Wikipedia:

The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese words, hulu (simplified Chinese: 葫芦; traditional Chinese: 葫蘆; pinyin: húlú; Wade-Giles: hu-lu) “calabash, bottle gourd” and hulu (simplified Chinese: 互录; traditional Chinese: 互錄; pinyin: hùlù; Wade-Giles: hu-lu) “interactive recording.”

The company blog explains:

In Mandarin, Hulu has two interesting meanings, each highly relevant to our mission. The primary meaning interested us because it is used in an ancient Chinese proverb that describes the hulu as the holder of precious things. It literally translates to “gourd,” and in ancient times, the hulu was hollowed out and used to hold precious things. The secondary meaning is “interactive recording.” We saw both definitions as appropriate bookends and highly relevant to the mission of Hulu. ^[4][5]

(Here’s the link to the above-mentioned blog post at Hulu with a picture of the young group (mostly of Chinese background?) who worked on choosing the name: http://blog.hulu.com/2008/05/13/meaning-of-hulu/.) (Note: For all their care, it seems that “Hulu” has some unusual meanings in other languages anyway. For a sampling, see:  Hulu Translates To “Cease” and “Desist” in Swahili. Oops.)

My next stop was a visit to the Hulu site at http://www.hulu.com/.  The “News” channel has a few sub-sections, but I just looked at the Politics section closely. Of course, it varies day to day, but it certainly is NOT a comprehensive news site…an awful lot of clips featuring unchallenged spin from the Administration and cable talk shows on the day I looked.  Hulu is entirely commercial content, so you won’t see any original “ads” or political discourse from the peons here, like you see at YouTube.

Who’s running Hulu for NBC, FOX, and Disney?

The CEO is one Jason Kilar. From Business Week:

Jason Kilar serves as Chief Executive Officer of Hulu, LLC. Mr. Kilar has been Chief Executive of online video joint venture of NBC Universal, Inc. and News Corp., since July 9, 2007. He serves as Special Advisor of KBL Acquisition Corp. IV*. He served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Application Software at Amazon.com Inc. since May 2003 and was responsible for Amazon’s Marketplace business. From February 2002 to May 2003, Mr. Kilar served as Vice President of Worldwide … Application Software of Amazon.com Inc., where he joined in May, 1997 as a Product Manager. From October 2001 to February 2002, Mr. Kilar served as Vice President of Marketplace of Amazon.com Inc. and served as its Vice President of Books, Music, and Video & DVD from February 2001 to October 2001 and serves as its Vice President. He began his career with The Walt Disney Company, where he worked for Disney Design & Development. He serves on the board of Management Leadership for Tomorrow. He has been Director of AdReady, Inc. since November 28, 2007. Mr. Kilar received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School…

The company is providing  investment capital for Hulu is Providence Equity. Of course, there’s a “global presence”:

Working collaboratively from offices in Providence, New York, London, Hong Kong and New Delhi, our 74 investment professionals pursue opportunities as a unified team across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Our sector focus and international mandate enable us to dedicate our full resources to building global leaders in the media, entertainment, communications and information industries, regardless of location.

The large “team” running this firm has some interesting names on the roster.

Michael K. Powell, now a Sr. Advisor for PE, formerly FCC chairman during the Bush Administration

In addition to Kilar, there are a lot of people with Harvard ties, work history with some of the large investment banks (with a number of them with a history at Morgan Stanley), and other interesting backgrounds. Here’s a sampling of some of the names I peeked at…there are many others with similiar ties on the long list of “the team”:

• Senior Managing Directors  Glenn M. Creamer and Paul J. Salem both come out of Harvard and Brown with interesting director backgrounds over and above the Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, and Prudential experience.  Others I took a peek at include:
• COO  Gary S. Weinstein …Lehman Brothers
• Managing Director Julie A. Fisher … The World Bank  &  J.P. Morgan
• Managing Director Christopher P.  Halpin …Goldman Sachs

• Chief Compliance Officer Fred Franklin (who “served for ten years as Assistant Director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement”)… from Bear Stearns

So, it looks like the total capture of the minds of the younger generation by the mass media will be complete if most of them gravitate to Hulu.  If YouTube can’t survive, will the creative video we see there dry up or become fragmented across many smaller sites?

Hulu is just another piece of the puzzle as the media “clamps down” to control what media content users see.  Scary, very scary indeed.

***

*KBL Acquisition Corp. IV is involved in “miscellaneous”  investment services but is a big player in the healthcare industry (also KBL I, II, III)

Hulu Company Profile.

GE media holdings (From Columbia Journalism Review site)

News Corp. media holdings (From Columbia Journalism Review site)

Disney media holdings (corporate site)

Twitter, czołowe medium ery social web, właśnie dostaje w skórę od swoich użytkowników za niezrozumiałe działania. To tylko pokazuje wszystkim innym firmom, że social web, to naprawdę nie jest miejsce, gdzie można pogrywać z klientami.

Dziś prosumenci nie muszą budować barykad. Wystarczy im internet.

Sprawa jest teoretycznie prosta. Kilka dni temu Twitter usunął możliwość dawania odpowiedzi osobom, których się nie śledzi. Pewnie miał ku temu jakieś powody, ale nie zmienia to faktu, że  część użytkowników Twittera zareagowała na to bardzo żywo. I zaczęli protestować przeciwko usunięciu tej funkcjonalności serwisu pod tagiem #fixreplies oraz, oczywiście, klasycznym #twitterfail.

Cała sytuacja przypomina oczywiście sprawę niedawnej zmiany wyglądu stron oraz ustawień prywatności Facebooka, również mocno oprotestowanych przez jego użytkowników.

Ben Parr, z serwisu Realhs przytacza jeszcze jeden przykład podobnego buntu użytkowników. Serwis Hulu mianowicie usunął wcześniejszy sezon serialu “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, za co został zalany elektronicznymi protestami swoich użytkowników.

W tym ostatnim przypadku jednak, Prezes Hulu Jason Kilar, zareagował błyskawicznie i w swoim wpisie na blogu pod doskonałym tytułem “Lojalność klientów jest trudno zdobyć, ale łatwo stracić”, szczerze i przekonująco wyjaśnił powody tej decyzji i uderzył się w piersi oraz zaproponował rekompensatę.

Na przykładzie tych wydarzeń, Ben Parr proponuje wyciągnięcie kilku lekcji dla firm, które znajdą się w podobnej sytuacji:

Lekcja 1. Rozmawiaj z klientami, nawet jeśli nie masz nic do powiedzenia.

Większość osób tworzących popularne serwisy społecznościowe ma problemy z komunikowaniem się z ich społecznościami. A kiedy to robią, to zazwyczaj z dwóch powodów: aby poinformować o nowych usługach (co jest przydatne z powodów PR), lub aby przeprosić za błędy (te przeprosiny są zazwyczaj po poważnych błędach). Ben Parr radzi, aby pisać do swoich społeczności i uczestniczyć w ich funkcjonowaniu nawet wtedy , kiedy nie ma się nic  znaczącego do powiedzenia, a już zdecydowanie z nimi rozmawiać, gdy planuje się wprowadzenie jakichkolwiek zmian, które dotkną tysiące lojalnych użytkowników.

Lekcja 2. Bądź bezpośredni.

Kiedy dokonujesz jakichś zmian w swoim serwisie lub podejmujesz jakąś ważną decyzję dotyczącą Twoich klientów - najpierw rozmawiaj o tym ze swoją społecznością. I kiedy to robisz; nie wykręcaj się, mów prosto z mostu. Bądź bezpośredni, powiedz wszystko co wiesz, co zamierzasz zrobić i dlaczego.

Najbardziej lojalni członkowie Twojej społeczności zrozumieją Twoją decyzję, a nawet jeśli nie, to w trakcie rozmowy, wspólnie znajdziecie optymalne rozwiązanie dla wszystkich z Was.

Lekcja 3. Uczyń jasnym, że naprawdę słuchasz.

Tak jak jest ważnym, aby rozmawiać ze swoją społecznością, tak samo jest ważnym, aby słuchać, co ona ma do powiedzenia. I kiedy już to robisz, uczyń jasnym, że słuchasz, przyswajasz te informacje i działasz bazując na nich. Tutaj, Ben Parr, podaje przykład Kilara, który działając w sytuacji kryzysowej jasno pokazał swojej społeczności, że wsłuchuje się w potrzeby jej członków a jego zespół czyta każdego ich emaila, wpis na blogu oraz wiadomość na Twitterze.

Lekcja 4. Wyznaj swoje błędy.

Kiedy popełnisz błąd, to zamiast go ukrywać w bunkrze i czekać aż ucichną protesty, albo co byłoby jeszcze gorsze, zamiast walczyć z nimi, zawsze jest lepiej gdy wystąpisz i przyznasz się, że popełniłeś błąd. Przecież klient ma zawsze rację ( a gdy są ich miliony i to zgadzające się ze sobą, to muszą mieć rację).

Lekcja 5. Obiecaj wyciągnięcie wniosków oraz poprawę – a następnie to zrób.

Jedyną gorszą rzeczą od popełnienia błędu jest powtórzenie go.

A jak jest w Polsce?

Pierwszy z brzegu: Allegro.pl

Właśnie przeprowadził zmianę layoutu i pewnych funkcjonaności. I sądząc po opiniach użytkowników na serwisach mikroblogingowych oraz na forum dyskusyjnym Allegro (2800 wpisów!) : nie jest to zmiana, która spotkała się z ich zachwytem. Co robi serwis?

Nowe Allegro. Nie wszystkim się podoba...

W zachodnich serwisach na podobne protesty odpowiada zazwyczaj Prezes, a na polskim Allegro? Sylwia Surma pisze m.in.:

“Mając na uwadze zmiany, jakie dokonują się na największych stronach polskiego Internetu, zaryzykuję stwierdzenie, że po wielkim „bum!” negatywnych opinii, za pół roku, mało kto z Was – Użytkowników Allegro – będzie pamiętał o jakości pracy na starych zakładkach. Mało tego, większość z Was zmieni swoje zdanie o 180 stopni i nawet, gdyby możliwość przełączania się na „stary widok Allegro” pozostała, nie będzie ona wykorzystywana.“

Całość tego wpisu znajdziecie tutaj – warto się z nim zapoznać, aby poznać “polską drogę” postępowania w podobnych sytuacjach. Jakże inną od tej opisywanej powyżej

Bankozaur dostaje po łapach

Oczywiście, gdy mówi się o błędach w polskim świecie social web, to należy zawsze przypominać katastrofę wizerunkową mBanku i Multibanku (Mstop.pl i nabiciwmbank.pl) i fakt, że na tym pogorzelisku, na naszych oczach powstaje arcyciekawy i pożyteczny serwis skupiający niezadowolonych klientów polskich instytucji finansowych.

Sądzę, że jeśli jego organizatorom starczy sił i zaangażowania, na przekształcenie go w prawdziwy serwis społecznościowy (chociażby na bazie Facebooka) i być może na sformalizowanie jego działalności (Stowarzyszenie), to na naszym rynku pojawi się najprawdziwsza, organizacja pozarządowa walcząca o prawa i pieniądze konsumentów.

Zgodnie z zasadą: nie ma tego złego, co by na dobre nie wyszło

Czego im i sobie życzę

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, in an interview with readers of The New York Times’ Freakonomics blog, said the company is “strongly counseling brands” not to run the same ads more than once during TV episodes aired on the site. Repetitive advertising on the site is something we’ve whined about in the past, and we’re sure you other regular Hulu users have, too. (But the site is not the only offender; other TV streaming providers have the same affliction.)

On that note, I did like Hulu’s “roadblock” takeover in primetime last Friday night, sponsored by McDonald’s. In exchange for no advertising during the latest episode of The Office, I watched the program in a McDonald’s-branded frame. OK by me!

Kilar also told a Freakonomics questioner that the company is concerned about cutting into pay TV revenue. So for now, Hulu doesn’t want to compete head-on with the cable TV living room experience.

[A] non-trivial portion of a consumer’s monthly payment for cable TV ends up going to the content owner. These pay TV revenues can at times account for 50 percent of a channel’s revenue (the balance being traditional advertising). It turns out that those pay-TV dollars help support production of some fantastic programs.

Kilar was a bit less careful in response to a question about extending the site to BlackBerrys, giving the impression that Hulu for mobiles is a nearer-term possibility. “Suffice it to say that BlackBerrys and many other mobile devices are well represented amongst the Hulu team,” he said.

NBC.com Partners with Kiptronic for Mobile Ads; agreement will let NBC.com dynamically serve ads on its mobile platform. (emailed release)

YuMe Launches New Video Ad Unit; the InSynch Video Takeover allows an in-stream video ad and an in-page banner ad to be synchronized so messages can move back and forth between them. (release)

Warner Bros. Television Group Partners with AOL for Socialthing; service will incorporate AIM and ICQ to let visitors on sites such as TheWB.com, KidsWB.com and Momlogic.com share and comment with friends. (release)

Tokbox Changes CEOs (Again); browser-based video chat company replaces Nick Triantos with Ian Small. (GigaOM)

Q&A with Jason Kilar About Disney; Hulu CEO talks about adding ABC content to his company’s ranks, content windowing and authentication. (paidContent) If you have questions for Mr. Kilar, he’s agreed to field some over at the Freakonomics Blog.

HBO Putting Parts of Alzheimer’s Project Online; portions of the documentary as well as 15 supplemental films surrounding the series will appear on YouTube, iTunes, MySpace and Facebook. (Multichannel News)

Pink: The Series Director Launches New Web Series; from Streamy winner Blake Calhoun comes 88 Hits, a mockumentary about mobsters that debuts on KoldCast TV today. (KoldCast TV)

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar insists that the video site doesn’t cannibalize cable television. “The reality is actually different.” In fact, pay TV customers are increasing, he says. Also, Hulu has lured 49% more viewers since co-parent NBC began promoting it with commercials. (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aULJwPCFWsgE 4/22)

No more speculation or leaks, it’s official. As Techcrunch wrote yesterday, MySpace cofounder Chris DeWolfe will shortly be leaving the company. He’ll remain on board as a strategic advisor. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/22/confirmed-myspace-ceo-chris-dewolfe-steps-down/ 4/22)

Times are tough in the online advertising space. Yahoo reported a 78% drop in net income, which totaled $118 million for Q1 compared to $537 million a year earlier. Revenue dropped 13% to $1.58 billion, down from $1.8 billion Q1 2008. Double digit declines in display advertising and revenues from affiliated sites didn’t help. Even search revenue on the company’s owned-and-operated sites dropped by 3% year-over-year to $399 million. (Cynopsis 4/22)

Twittering actors and industry bloggers are threatening the role of the once mighty Variety as the premier source for Hollywood news. Nikki Finke’s blog is “the one to beat right now.” Still, actors, directors and producers are bypassing the press — and blogs — via Twitter feeds. (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://www.observer.com/2009/media/get-me-rewrite-once-variety-ruled-holywood-press-twittering-stars-and-cutthroat-blogs-hav 4/21)

The Public Broadcasting Service is launching its own video site, allowing online viewers to stream many of its top shows, including “Masterpiece Theater,” for free. PBS is joining the ranks of Hulu and YouTube — places for consumers who aren’t wedded to watching TV on a TV. (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-pbs22-2009apr22,0,5015075.story 4/22)

The real-time web is all the rage, with FriendFeed widely deploying live feeds earlier this month and Facebook working hard on bringing real-time streams to its homepage. Now YouTube is looking to get in on the action, and is currently testing a new feature dubbed ‘YouTube RealTime’, which allow users to see which of their friends are currently online, the videos they’re watching, and comments they’ve left. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/22/youtube-starts-experimenting-with-real-time-feeds/ 4/22)

Google is introducing Profiles, a service that allows people to create personal profiles that will turn up during Web searches for their name. The service is seen as Google’s attempt to take on Facebook and Twitter. “This improves Google’s relevancy in people search.” (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-04-21-google-profiles-smiths-search_N.htm 4/21)

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the software maker isn’t interested in buying Yahoo and will focus on gaining market share in Internet search through innovation. Microsoft, however, is believed to be stepping up talks with Yahoo about a partnership to challenge Google. (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ap.6RXsXVGmE 4/22)

Global recorded music sales fell by more than 8% in 2008 to $18.42 billion, led by a sharp drop-off in the United States, according to the world music trade body IFPI. The music industry is facing the transition by consumers to cheaper digital song formats and rampant piracy. (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSTRE53K5VY20090421 4/21)

I’m lucky enough to currently be in San Francisco, eagerly awaiting the kick-off of SFO AdTech for 2009.

Moscone Center - Ad Tech San Francisco

The thing I’m most excited about is seeing & hearing new ideas on digital performance marketing and general new on-line trends from North America, the biggest and most progressive digital country. Hopefully I’ll come back with a head full of new ideas & perspectives, ready to challenge the status quo even more, and yes beyond just Search Marketing.

I’m most interested in seeing:

• Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu – Advertising’s User Revolution in the Digital Age
• Media Boot Camp Power Session: The Modern Agency
• Media Boot Camp Power Session: Marketing Effectiveness—Improving Accountability and Returns to Impact Business Performance
• Media Boot Camp: Know Thy Customer: Hard Data + Fresh Insights
• Fear, Love and Advertising with Steve Hayden from Ogilvy Worldwide
• TV 3.0: Reach + Targetability–The Promise of Addressable Advertising
• Content Marketing Strategies: How to Leverage Social Media to Exponentially Grow Your Audience and Bottom Line
• Media Boot Camp: Search + Display–Moving Beyond the Brand vs. Direct Response Model

If anyone is interested, let me know. I’ll be posting updates over the next few days and if you are interested will make notes, content available.

Cheers

JH

According to PC World’s, Brennon Slattery Hulu rockets to the second largest streaming video provider.   According to February Neislen data Hulu enjoys 9.4 million unique visitors.   Imagine Hulu aggregating the MySpace, FaceBook, and You Tube audiences all logged in and watching the latest Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, or Jennifer Aniston block buster.   The big idea here is that personalization, interactive advertising, and monetizing the social networks is now a reality.  To all those interactive agencies wondering how they are going to weather the current macro economy slump, I encourage them to get on the first flight to Austin, Texas  for SXSW and start preparing for the Interactive  Earthquake that will be felt around the world.  You might also want to consider some stock in Adobe.  

According to the New York Times,  Hulu, Internet broadcaster, is adding social “friending” to its service offer.  However, they are going it alone.   Using Open ID would allow Hulu to amass much larger audiences such as Myspace and Google.   Maybe Hulu will be the High Quality Internet Broadcaster that produces content for the Internet demographic synchronously.   They certainly have the quality on an asynchronous basis.  If so, and they leverage the log in features of  some of the larger social networks they may be the next major Internet portal.  Interactive advertisers start your engines.

In an unusual — and very welcome — case of transparency, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar this week posted a frank blog entry apologizing for removing several seasons of episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This FX Networks’ comedy was pulled down at the network’s request, presumably because it hopes to build some momentum for it’s official Sunny site where many episodes can still be seen. Hulu viewers complained, Hulu asked FX for an extension, and FX granted it. (It may help that FX and Hulu are both connected to Fox, which owns the former and has a hand in the latter). The episodes are now back on Hulu through the 25th of January.  

Two quick things to learn from this experience:

1 – We’re still making this up as we go along. FX, Hulu, and the viewers are all still very new to this idea of watching TV online. FX changed its mind half way through the season, Hulu is required to comply, and viewers are left picking up the pieces. Kilar’s approach — the frank apology — is as disarming as it is astute. That kind of transparency is helpful when negotiating the tricky bumps in a relationship. It doesn’t ultimately solve the problem, however, that content has been disappearing from sites for the last several months as content owners continue to change their minds about their strategies. 

2 – Consumers feel like they hold the ultimate trump card: piracy. If you read the comments from Hulu viewers on the Hulu blog post, you’ll find that most of them — although pleased with Kilar’s openness — are more than willing to threaten piracy as a solution to the problem. This is the same kind of response I get from commenters on my blog when these issues come up. It’s hard to say whether they represent most of us — as I posted before, we know that only 10% of US adults have ever pirated video via bittorrent. But we also know that online piracy will only get easier (and better) until eventually the US will have to contend with it they way some other markets (like Korea, China, etc.) already have. 

The comment I added on the Hulu blog is fairly direct: isn’t threatening piracy akin to telling your spouse that if he/she doesn’t want to be intimate with you that you’ll just sleep with someone else? I have a feeling it doesn’t encourage the behavior you really want! I have been in meetings with studio copyright lawyers when they hear of threats like that and it just blinds them to their more strategic alternatives. This may be one of the reasons that Netflix is succeeding in getting more and more content approved for its streaming service. The subscription model satisfies the studios’ desire to get paid and the consumer’s desire for a convenient, uninterrupted experience.

Is there a future Hulu subscription model hovering on the horizon? What do you think?

Excerpted from GigaOM:

New Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is a solid, proven manager who will bring some much-needed stability to the beleaguered Internet giant, but she has a big hole in the No. 2 spot. Bartz needs a president who is young and energetic, has engineering chops, clear vision, and — most importantly — expertise building great products that provide a compelling Internet user experience for a diverse group of consumers.

My candidate to be her consigliere: Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu. I’ve spoke to quite a few people who know Kilar well, and most of them described him as that rare content guy with technical chops. A good team builder, he is said to inspire. Others waxed eloquent about his sense of design and his passion for media. Remember, he ran the DVD store for Amazon. His defining quality is hyper-competitiveness — something that would be important to fire up the troops.

With his service growing by leaps and bounds, and advertisers lining up to get on board, Kilar’s only problem is that he doesn’t have enough traffic –- like, say, YouTube. This is where Yahoo can help. Or rather, where the two can help each other. Clearly search and search advertising isn’t quite working out for Yahoo; what Yahoo knows best is media and content. Which is why buying Hulu would be a strategically relevant acquisition for the company — it would play to Yahoo’s media strengths.

You’re probably thinking, why would Fox (s nws) and GE (s ge) sell their pet project to Yahoo? Well, why not? After all, they took a $100 million investment from Providence Equity Partners, which means they have an interest in making some sort of a return on this company. By selling to Yahoo for stock -– say, $2 billion worth — Rupert Murdoch would get a nice big chunk of Yahoo shares, which could come in handy if he wants to offload MySpace to Yahoo sometime in the future. NBC would get a significant Internet presence with Yahoo, which could only help its other digital efforts. And the Providence guys –- well, they’d get to make some money.

Read the full post on GigaOM.

With a new chief executive in the house, it’s time for the beleaguered Internet company Yahoo (s yhoo) to make a bold move. Like buying fast-growing online video service, Hulu. No, it wouldn’t be cheap, but it would be money well spent, as it would add zing to the company in more ways than one.

When Yahoo announced its decision yesterday to name Carol Bartz as its new CEO, it also quietly disclosed that President Sue Decker, who had been a likely contender for the chief executive position, was going to leave the company. Her exit leaves a big hole at the No. 2 spot at Yahoo.

Bartz is clearly a great executive, and a solid, proven manager who will bring some much-needed stability to the company. She needs a president who is both young and energetic, but has the maturity to work with a large number of people. This person would have engineering chops, clear vision, and — most importantly — expertise building great products that provide a compelling Internet user experience for a diverse group of consumers.

Since magically merging Bill Gates and Steve Jobs into one isn’t an option, she’ll have to settle for a mere mortal. My candidate to be her consigliere: Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu. What are the odds that he’d be interested? Not high –- after all Hulu is the hottest ticket in Hollywood, has a valuation of about a billion dollars and the attention of everyone from Rupert Murdoch to the Google (s goog) founders. At first blush, a marriage between the hot Hulu with a dowdy and decrepit Yahoo doesn’t appear to make any sense. But that’s the short-term view.

Hulu-tastic

With his service growing by leaps and bounds, and advertisers lining up to get on board, Kilar’s only problem is that he doesn’t have enough traffic –- like, say, YouTube. That will change over a period of time; and as we all know, time is an elastic concept. Perhaps this is where Yahoo can help. Or rather, where the two can help each other. Clearly search and search advertising isn’t quite working out for Yahoo; what Yahoo knows best is media and content. Which is why buying Hulu would be a strategically relevant acquisition for the company — it would play to Yahoo’s media strengths.

Yahoo’s online video efforts thus far are laughable. So much so that I’m hesitant to even mention them and YouTube in the same sentence. (Darn! I just did. But you get my point.) Nevertheless, it still has a lot of traffic and it can very easily help Hulu, which has great content, get scale -– both in terms of infrastructure and number of users. By acquiring Hulu, it would instantly become a credible competitor to Google’s YouTube. Yahoo also has a lot of experience working with branded content and brand advertisers, which can only further help Hulu. For Yahoo, Hulu brings inventory for higher-priced advertising, a marked improvement from what it makes from selling banner advertising.

Win-Win For Everyone?

You’re probably thinking, why would Fox (s nws) and GE (s ge) sell their pet project to Yahoo? Well, why not? After all, they took a $100 million investment from Providence Equity Partners, which means they have an interest in making some sort of a return on this company. By selling to Yahoo for stock -– say, $2 billion worth — Rupert Murdoch would get a nice big chunk of Yahoo shares, which could come in handy if he wants to offload MySpace to Yahoo sometime in the future. NBC would get a significant Internet presence with Yahoo, which could only help its other digital efforts. And the Providence guys –- well, they’d get to make some money.

At current prices, Yahoo looks to be a bargain. And if Bartz does her magic and things work out according to plan, Yahoo’s stock should go up –- which means Rupert, GE and Providence would all make a lot of money from betting on the company.

In other words, a win-win deal for everyone!

Jason’s Story

But if I was running Yahoo, I would do the deal just for Kilar. When Yahoo was looking for a CEO, I made a short list of executives whom I thought would be ideal. He was high on that list; the only reason he wasn’t my top pick was his lack of experience running a big company. As Bartz’s 38-year-old consigliere, he could be the prince-in-waiting. He worked at Amazon.com (s amzn) for 10 years, so we know the man has patience.

I’ve spoke to quite a few people who know Kilar well, and most of them described him as that rare content guy with technical chops. A good team builder, he is said to inspire. Others waxed eloquent about his sense of design and his passion for media. Remember, he ran the DVD store for Amazon. His defining quality is hyper-competitiveness — something that would be important to fire up the troops.

During his keynote speech at our NewTeeVee Live conference back in November, Kilar said: “Our goal is to deliver a service that users, advertisers, and content owners unabashedly love. Our strategy is to deliver ‘brain-spray’ awesome quality.” Imagine what that kind of philosophy would do for the 200 million-plus people who use Yahoo!

A very close friend of Kilar’s described him as the man who wants to do the impossible. Of course, taking the helm at Hulu and building it into a viable competitor to YouTube, against all odds and attacks by good-for-nothing pontificators like yours truly (who were totally wrong about the service) qualifies as impossible in my books. Hulu’s revenue will apparently match that of YouTube in 2009. No wonder some have jokingly compared Hulu to President-elect Obama.

In many ways, buying Hulu would give Yahoo the same stimulus Flickr provided the company back in 2005. In other words, some of the tangibles cannot be quantified, but it would be a wise move all the same.

The new year doesn’t promise to bring much in the way of good tidings for most startups, much less those with the shaky business models found in digital media. But, at the same time, online video consumption is a strengthening reality that won’t be suppressed by tough economic times. So, if you’re involved in a video venture looking out at the spread for 2009, where do you stand?

First of all, let’s talk about where things ended up last year. The big news items for video startups (and young, internal ventures at big companies) in 2008 were acquisitions, layoffs and shut-downs — and of course fundings. Many of the companies we cover raised funding last year, though the pace of new investments slowed along with the economy. (As for including a category for IPOs…yeah right.) To recap some of the highlights (and lowlights):

Acquisitions: There were no blockbuster acquisitions in 2008 — at this point it seems impossible that anyone will ever match 2006’s Google-YouTube. At $160 million, Yahoo-Maven was probably the biggest deal that’s directly relevant to our space, but that deal has faded, along with the products involved. Other than a couple biggies on this list, you’ll be forgiven if you hardly recognize any of the names.

Vidmeter by Visible Measures, NBCU buys LX.TV, Maven Networks by Yahoo, Revver by LiveUniverse, Weblistic by Spot Runner, Bebo (the social network has significant investment in original video) by AOL, MediaXstream by Secure Media Solutions, Kontiki by MK Capital, FanLib by Disney, CNET (which has many video assets) by CBS Interactive, Navic by Microsoft, Omnisio by Google/YouTube, Radiance Technologies by Comcast Media Center, Visual Connection by KIT Digital, Illumenix by TubeMogul, ClearStory by The FeedRoom, SportVU by STATS, TIOTI by Vizimo

Layoffs: These stories sped up considerably as the year went on. Most, if not all, failed to put an end to tough times for the companies involved.

Digeo, Crackle, MeeVee, Akimbo, SuperDeluxe, Vudu, Seesmic (twice), Heavy, PermissionTV, ManiaTV, Break, Revision3, Smashface, 60Frames, Vuze, Spot Runner (twice), Veoh (twice), BitTorrent (twice), Current Media, Qik, Strands, Brightcove and DivX. (Not to mention public companies like TiVo, Netflix, Akamai, Viacom, NBCU, Adobe and AT&T.)

Shut down: This category was actually smaller than we might have expected, given how tough it is to succeed in this business. Last year, when we asked a panel of online video experts — from video makers to professors to VCs and media execs — what would happen in 2008, one of the most common answers was that me-too video sites would shut down. Here’s what they told us:

• “If you are running an online video company that features non-premium, commodity content and you missed the Internet ‘network effect’ enjoyed by YouTube and a few others, it might be time to cash out.”
• “Sadly, the second-tier video sites this year will sell to larger companies or fade away.”
• “Any of the companies who have raised $15 million or more and are running out of funds now are in serious danger.”

Well, it turns out doomsday wasn’t quite nigh… But it’s a good bet that many of the startups on the layoffs list will be forced to make even deeper cuts in 2009.

Stage6 (DivX’s video portal), Akimbo, Firebrand, AllPeers, Peerflix, Streamcast Networks, Pickle (after being acquired by Scripps), Red Swoosh (after being acquired by Akamai), SanDisk’s Fanfare and TakeTV, Starz Entertainment’s online service Vongo, Skyrider, ClickStar, Moblogic (after CBS acquired Wallstrip), Mobuzz, Jumpcut (after being acquired by Yahoo), Eyespot (though the assets were acquired by PixelFish),

But people are watching more and more online video, from user-generated video to TV episodes to a growing portion of web video originals. Here are the consumption stats:

Unfortunately, global video stats are hard to come by, but here’s one impressive measure of how much video has infiltrated our lives: comScore says U.S. online video watchers watched 273.1 minutes of online video in the month of November 2008, up from 195 minutes in November 2007. And the number was only 151 minutes in January 2007. A 40 percent increase in consumption in a single year is massive, and there’s no reason to think it will go away.

And what about the money? Here’s what we’re looking at for market size:

eMarketer has been looking at video advertising revenue closely. First it said 2008 would net $1.3 billion in U.S. video ad revenue, but then halfway through the year it revised that estimate to $505 million. By the end of the year, that number was bumped up to $587 million. Notwithstanding the whole “track record” thing, here’s this year’s eMarketer forecast: $850 million in U.S. online video ads 2009.

As for paid video, it’s the red-headed step-child of video business models — but it’s also being opened up in new ways by services like Netflix, which includes unlimited online streaming with most of its physical DVD rental plans, and sports services like the exemplary MLB.tv. ABI Research forecasts $2.49 billion in worldwide — N.B. worldwide, not just U.S.! — revenue for paid video over broadband, more than double the $1.16 billion it estimated for 2008.

So what’s next on the agenda? I am generally uncomfortable with predictions, given how self-serving they are (plus I hate to be obvious or wrong). But here are some of the most provocative and specific video-related predictions I’ve seen from people who take an active interest in the space.

• Rise of video use by marketers for SEO — “a short cut to the top of Google” (Kevin Nalty)
• Growing market for cheap video stock footage (Robin Good)
• Influence of video on politics deepens with President Elect Barack Obama’s fireside chats (Alex Castro)
• Closure of most of the startups on this list: Revision3, ON Networks, NextNewNetworks, 23/6, Funny or Die — “Normal people have no idea what any of these things are.” (Rex Sorgatz)
• “The biggest trend in online video is where and on what people will watch” (Hulu CEO Jason Kilar). Is this a smoke signal given the source? Hulu was the break-out story of 2008, but it’s only available on the web right now. Meanwhile, the push to bring web content to the TV, driven by Netflix, is gearing up to be a prominent storyline in 2009.

So, there you have it, a cornucopia of data points and pointers. Of course, when it all comes down to it, silly things like founder dynamics, funders’ indulgence, and luck will likely have as much a part in your success or failure as the market. What’s sad is that we may not see a lot of new startups this year, just at a time when some of the best ideas about online video are being crystallized into shows, products and services that people actually want and enjoy. But if you’re lucky enough to have a little runway left, we hope to see you out there.

Photo by Flickr user dierken.

Kilar on Original Content; in a Q&A, Hulu CEO says he expects library content like recycled TV shows will remain the biggest “bucket” of premium content, but originals like Dr. Horrible will be the fastest-growing segment. (MediaPost)

Cuban Acquires Stake in Carmike Cinemas; Cuban, who also has a stake in Landmark Theaters, bought 9.4 percent of Carmike for $2.8 million. (Associated Press)

College Footbal Scores Online; ESPN online served up more than 101 million college football feature and highlight video streams this season. (MediaPost)

Warner Music Acts Upset Over YouTube Yanking; Amanda Palmer, an artist signed to a Warner subsidiary, says Warner has no bargaining power and even if it did get more money from YouTube, it’s unlikely she’d see any of it. (Techdirt) See our previous coverage.

Blinkx Releases New Ad Format; the “un-roll” is like a branded barn door that slowly opens as the content begins to play. You can see the demo here.

Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu — everyone’s favorite way to watch studio shows online — discusses the three forces that are driving Hulu: the big wave of the online video trend, obsession (give ‘em what they want and be neurotic) and the positive results of the service so far.

A big wave: 12.6 billion was the number of video streams in the U.S. in September according to ComScore. It’s a big deal. It was a fraction of that 6 months ago. Think of it like what Starbucks (s SBUX) did for premium coffee, is like what we’re doing for the premium content business — if you can make it easier to consume, people will consume more. Media is an impulse business. A lot of this is from infrastructure that is far beyond Hulu.

Obsessing: Our mission is ambitious and never ending. Our goal is to deliver a service that users, advertisers, and content owners unabashedly love. Our strategy is to deliver “brain-spray” awesome quality. The implementation is similar to when I worked at Disney (s DSNY). Attention to detail is the cornerstone of how Hulu has designed its service — we obsess over each pixel on the screen. The team at Hulu are odd birds. We argue over fonts, design, and we obsess over everything.

Give users and advertisers choice. Listen to users — empower them. Relentlessly innovate. The product is a function of being neurotic, but its good for users. Listen and take action quickly.

Results of Hulu: In the 8 months since launch, we’ve had 12 million monthly users, and 145 million monthly video streams. PC World Magazine named Hulu No. 1 product of 2008, and TIME Magazine rated Hulu among the Top 5 inventions of 2008. Hulu has been embedded over 1.5 million times, and on over 60,000 sites. We’ve attracted 115 top content owners, including Warner Bros, Sony, MGM, Fox, NBC, Comedy Central, Paramount, and NHL.

Jason Kilar is giving the keynote at the NeeTeeVee Live conference. A big wave: He talks about the 12.6 billion streams online today. Users are responding. Hulu was founded to take a look at this new environment. Hulu is looking to establish premium content like what Starbucks did for coffee. Making it easy to consume and put it everywhere.

Media is an impulse business and the first law is to make it easy to consume. That is their vision. Their formal mission is to help find and enjoy the worlds premium content when, where, and how they want.

Obsessing: Jason was inspired by Disney World. Talks about attention to detail similar to Disney on how they keep their theme park clean. Specifically the detail around the user experience screen real estate..etc.

He is talking about the backend and how they change the user experience based upon the search request on the site. Again back to his obsessive user experience.

I’m impressed by their focus on user experience.

Results:
12 million monthly users; 145 million monthly streams; embedded 1.5million times on over 60k sites. Attracted over 115 top content owners; content partners seeing dramatic lift in terms of their overall onine business. Advertiser demand exceeded expectations. I’ve been tracking this for some time and this is the future business model see my link to past post.

Questions from audience:
Advertisers pulling back: seeing uptake on video and not concerned about advertising right now – emphasis is on the brand.

International plans and key territories? Won’t go into detail on their roadmap. He is indicating that they are very focused on a global vision.

Cnet is saying they are having problems recruiting advertising and ability to serve up ads. Won’t share any financial details. Jason is talking about monetizaiton around premium videos. Ad supported video is $80b. Ad revenue is critical for Hulu. Jason isn’t really giving an answer on this.

Product placement: hot spotting is good on the Internet and he sees this as being big and is possible on the Internet today. It’s a function of getting the user base large enough. Emphasis on critical mass.

What’s holding Hulu back from moving fast? They are a startup and the reality is that they have limited resources.

Update: Venturebeat has a story among others on Techmeme.