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advertising
Bing Will Annoy You Into Submission
Microsoft's new search-dealie "Bing" is going up against The Google, which is hard! Fortunately, Bing's marketing wizards have devised the world's most annoying ways to promote it. (*Bing* sound)! More » -
injustices
Enjoy Your Free Hulu While You Still Can
Why does everything good have to come to an end? Sigh. According to Jeff Bercovici of Daily Finance, Hulu is poised to start charging people subscription fees to watch video on the site. More » -
the internet
YouTube's Sad Studio Deal Just Highlights Hulu's Superiority
In the war between video sites, Hulu might have the Daily Show, 30 Rock and 24, but YouTube just signed big studio deals to bring you... Harper's Island and The Addams Family. Oh, Google. More » -
online video
Report: Sarah Palin destroying Web video
We've uncovered what's really killing the online-advertising business: Sarah Palin! Or rather, the lack thereof. Traffic at Hulu, NBC's YouTube wannabe, tumbled in November without the Web's favorite hot lady governor and VP candidate. -
great moments in pr
Hulu wants me to tell you they're catching up with YouTube
You've never heard of media analyst company Screen Digest. Keep that in mind when you stumble upon a few dozen news reports today that claim "Hulu ... a smaller upstart backed by News Corporation and NBC Universal ... is forecast to draw level with Google’s YouTube in US advertising revenues next year." Any reporter who reads that sentence in the Financial Times instantly wonders, "forecast by who?" By the Financial Times? By Hulu executives? No, by Screen Digest. Take that as you will. -
online advertising
Hulu's surprising lesson
Jason Kilar, the CEO of online-video site Hulu, has rediscovered a truism: less is more. Hulu, which is mostly owned by NBC and News Corp., runs fewer ads on the TV clips it licenses from its TV-network parents than they air when they broadcast the same shows. And yet the ads are more effective. This could simply be a novelty effect; everything about Hulu is new, so the ads also draw more notice. But Hulu may be onto something. Why don't networks try running fewer ads on air, too? (Photo via Alarm:Clock) -
online video
Joost will let you relive the '90s with "Friends"
BoomTown's Kara Swisher paused in making ribald jokes about Joost's London office to report that the online-video purveyor will be offering six full seasons of NBC's former hit Friends. With this, Joost will reach an audience who prefers New York City when there's no black people, just like in dated sitcoms and Woody Allen movies. But I digress. NBC-backed Hulu only offers snippets of Friends episodes. Joost isn't exactly going to take off with syndicated reruns you can watch on dozens of cable channels. For those of you desperate to relive Ross and Rachel, the site will relaunch in mid-October — no plugin required. -
online video
To promote TV shows, NBC turns to Hulu
What's the best way to get people who don't watch TV to start watching it? For starters, advertising TV shows somewhere other than on TV. Give NBC this much credit: The network, which has seen better days in the ratings, hopes to attract viewers by releasing fall season premieres on Hulu a week ahead of their television air date. More » -
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online video
Hulu sneaks up on YouTube's ad market
Nielsen stats show NBC's Hulu video site has only 2 percent of YouTube's traffic. But there's a twist: Hulu runs ads on everything. YouTube, by contrast, can sell ads on less than 3 percent of its video trove. Moreover, Hulu seems to land more big-ad-budget consumer brands like Dove. Watch enough Hulu, and the ads seem pretty close to what you'll catch on cable. Maybe that's why they aggravate my elitist nerves. I'd still rather pay a few bucks a month to watch all my online vids without interruptions. Yes, I'd pay for YouTube. Is it really just me? -
downtime
Hulu widgets let you watch TV while pretending to use Internet
Finally a widget I can get behind: TV and movie site Hulu has built a set of highly configurable widgets that can preview or even play full episodes in the middle of a Web page. Now if only they'd carry the entire Season 4 backlog of Battlestar Galactica. -
online video
Vogue's new reality show hopes to bedazzle the Internet
Every print publisher, and especially the glossies, want in on the online-video game. Unlike the text-and-photos Web, where there are more pageviews than media buyers know what to do with, there's not enough slickly packaged content that big brands deem safe enough to advertise themselves on. Condé Nast's Vogue has a new reality show for the Web, Model.Live, which "tracks three models as they navigate casting calls, catwalks and airports for fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris." It debuts August 19. What you won't see? Drinking and smoking. What you will see? Eating disorders confronted "head-on." That's because this an attempt to reach out to a younger demographic on behalf of the sponsor, aspirational mall brand Express — which sells American women the sequined, screen-printed jeans they love. What's all this going to cost Express? More » -
online video
Throwing good money after bad: $6 billion in VC for video sites
$6 billion has been invested by venture capital firms into American online video sites since 2005. And that's against only one real payday, Google's $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube, which has only garnered revenue in the low eight figures. True, advertisers spent $17 billion at the television upfronts, as Silicon Alley Insider's Michael Leamonth points out, giving an idea of the potential market that's being chased. More » -
online video
YouTube moves to counter Hulu by offering full-length movies and shows
Mark Cuban says Hulu is kicking ass because of a simple marketing device: The NBC and News Corp.-backed site is advertising full-length programs on YouTube to get traffic to shows on which they can sell real advertising. YouTube, rather than ban Hulu, is now angling to keep that traffic in-house by allowing partners to upload shows up to 1 gigabyte in size, enough room for full-length film and television programming (though not at great quality). More » -
online video
Mark Cuban: "Hulu is kicking YouTube's ass"
Two years ago, Mark Cuban wrote: "Would Google be crazy to buy YouTube? No doubt about it. Moronic would be an understatement of a lifetime." Since then, Google did buy it — for $1.65 billion — and the site's become so popular its actually the Web's third most popular search engine all on its own. Does that mean Cuban has changed his mind? No, no, it does not. The reason is Hulu, Cuban explains in 802 words, which we've edited down to 100, below. More » -
confirmed
Hulu lands Viacom's Colbert and Stewart
Now showing on NBC Universal and News Corp. Web video joint venture Hulu: the Daily Show's Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central. Viacom, which owns the Comedy Central network, has long hinted it might join Hulu — we heard rumors the deal was done in March — but until now had only announced agreements with Joost, the failing Internet video company founded by Skype founders Nikolas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. More » -
stats
ABC tops online, with CBS a comer
ABC has the most popular television network website, just a shade more popular than NBC.com among the six broadcasters sampled by HitWise. But both websites are down in their relative share of the online audience, while CBS has greatly increased visits. Why? Well, for starters, CBS is ahead in the year-to-date ratings race for actual television. The top draws to the network sites are, once again, competitions and other game shows — American Idol was the top draw for Fox, Deal or No Deal for NBC and Dancing With the Stars for ABC. Almost every site, however, kept users on longer, with the average user spending three more minutes on CBS. Only visits to NBC got shorter, probably because some users are going to Hulu to watch full episodes of shows like The Office and 30 Rock -
copyfight
Redlasso hires former CBS CEO to avoid lawsuit
Michael Jordan, former CEO of CBS, has been tapped by Redlasso as an advisor, presumably to glad-hand the TV companies which sent the company a cease and desist letter last week. The startup has cobbled together a fair-use defense; the Electronic Frontier Foundation told Valleywag they're watching the case but declined to weigh in. But if Redlasso were going to fight the networks in court, it would have hired lawyers, not a dealmaker like Jordan. The company has been in talks with the networks for years. So what went wrong? Hulu. More » -
online video
Joost's last, best hope nixed by Adobe
The latest iteration of Joost, the once-hot, now decidedly not video startup from the people who brought you Skype, will work in your browser — but only if you download a plugin from Joost. And while Joost struggles to find good content, Adobe is rolling file sharing into its Flash player, beating Joost's new plugin to the punch. NBC has worked with file-sharing content delivery platforms in the past, and Hulu — a site backed with quality content — uses Flash. I'm sure the Joost developers are tech whizzes, but even our journalist math puts them on the wrong side of this equation. (Photo by Job D.) -
online advertising
Why does Madison Avenue have to beg its way into Web videos?
Hulu, the Web-video venture of NBC Universal and News Corp., reached nearly 900,000 visitors last month, according to Compete. Too bad that its 15-second ads and spots spliced into the middle of videos aren't where ad agencies want to spend their clients' money. They want to spend it the way LonelyGirl15's backers do — on product placements. "Just placing ads like prerolls are not a big interest to us, frankly," Digitas EVP Carl Fremont told Silicon Alley Insider. "That's just taking the old TV model and adapting it to a new screen. We would rather work with a producer and develop custom content." Which, of course, is the even older TV model — the one that led Procter & Gamble to invent the soap opera. -
online video
NBC Direct still doesn't work
Liz Gannes, a veteran online video reporter whom I've worked with and is no slouch when it comes to getting almost any newfangled content application to function, couldn't get NBC's relaunched video-on-demand software to work. The offering is powered by a file-sharing download process from Pando, but not much good if users can't even install the software. Isn't there a company that already has a delivery and payment system for 720p video content from the networks — one that NBC used to work with? Meanwhile, to get your 30 Rock fix online, Gannes says stick with Hulu. Just looking at the listed bugs on the download page would be enough to scare off anyone who's confused by file-sharing sites. -
online video
Hulu nabs Diggnation and other Revision3 shows
Hulu, the online video site created as a joint venture between NBC and News Corp., will distribute shows from content startup Revision3, which focuses on shows broadly related to technology. Now you can easily switch between WWE wrestling matches and watching Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose getting drunk without having to turn off your laptop. [Silicon Alley Insider] -
clips
Kara Swisher calls Hulu lead developer a 12 year old because, well, he looks like one
Here's the highlight from Kara Swisher's a tour of the Hulu offices. Hulu CEO Kilar takes Swisher into a group of cubicles reserved for developers. Hulu, Kilar says, was developed "between here and Beijing." Then Kilar walks over to a desk where what seems to be a child sits. "I want to introduce you to a little-known secret," Kilar says. How cute, Kilar wants to introduce Swisher to his kid. "Eden, take your earpieces out," Kilar tells the boy, before pulling them out of the boy's ears himself. The kid turns around and Kilar begins to explain that ""This guy coded—" but Swisher interrupts. "Oh, hello 12 year old, hello." Kilar: "He's legal. Over 21." The kid: "Barely." -
online video
Friday Night Lights will continue, but available on torrent sites months before Hulu
Critically acclaimed but chronically low-rated jock opera Friday Night Lights managed to sneak in a third season thanks to a unique deal between NBC Universal and DirecTV. But the network has built an interesting window into the release — the episodes will premiere on DirecTV's "The 101" channel in October, but not air in prime time until February. The episodes also won't be available on Hulu until NBC airs them next year, which makes no sense at all. More » -
online video
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar mum on Janet Jackson nipple-slip question
When asked whether he'd post a Web clip featuring Janet Jackson's 2004 Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction, where Justin Timberlake yanked off more of her top than the two half-time performers say they'd planned to, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar deflected I Want Media's question as "theoretical.... I don't want to go there." But the site shows R-rated movies and asks users to confirm their age before showing the racier (and gorier) stuff. Kilar himself has played up the Hulu feature that lets viewers pick particular clips to search on and embed in their blogs. Which leads us to wonder: Is Hulu's target YouTube's audience, or Mr. Skin's? (Photo by AP/Ron Wurzer) -
online advertising
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar says the site will soon allow users to pick the ads theywanthave to watch. If Ford buys ads for an SNL episode, for example, viewers will be able to select mind-numbing ads about Mustangs or SUVs. Viewers will also have theSophie's choiceoption to select to watch one long commercial, likely a movie trailer, instead of several short ones. [paidContent] More » -
online video
Hulu videos open to all, with Time Warner and Viacom waiting in wings
Tomorrow, Hulu will finally open its doors to the wider public. Rumor has it Time Warner and Viacom soon plan to join the site, which is backed by NBC and News Corp., through nonexclusive distribution deals. CBS digital guru Quincy Smith, however, remains pessimistic: "If the Web is just another way to watch TV, I think I'm going to slit my wrists." Below, the best friend of former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel's daughter in the kind of short form clip Hulu hopes the public will take to. More » -
online video
Beam me up! CBS.com streams full episodes of "Star Trek"
When I was a lot younger, I taped — onto VHS! — all of the original Star Trek episodes when they aired at 3 a.m. on Friday nights, so I could watch them later. If only I had waited 13 years. CBS has put all three seasons of Star Trek online for anyone to view, along with a number of other old shows to the Audience Network, including The Twilight Zone, Hawaii Five-O and MacGyver. More » -
nbc
NBC will stream old TV shows on NBC.com, just like already does through Hulu. And through NBC Direct. And on the box in your living room. [SAI] -
online video
Yahoo Video relaunches, and hints at video on Flickr
Yahoo Video has soft-launched a new website, in a move which speaks to both the potential of Yahoo and the company's utter disorganization. It has all the necessaries in the age of YouTube and Hulu: clips created by amateurs and professionals, playlists, and "exclusive" content. The latter, if true, is refreshing: Thanks to syndication deals which allow the endless regurgitation of video from site to site, most of the Hollywood-born clips on the Web are numbingly similar. The site also has a tantalizing promise: Video on Flickr. More » -
rumormonger
Hulu lands Time Warner, Viacom deal still closing
Time Warner and Viacom video content will soon run on Hulu, the Web video joint venture from NBC Universal and News Corp. The Time Warner deal is done, while Viacom's is "not totally signed," a source tells us. Both deals are said to be nonexclusive. (A Hulu spokesbot autodialed us to relay the nitpick that the paperwork hasn't been signed yet. Whatever.) The news isn't a shock: Time Warner subsidiary AOL agreed to distribute Hulu at launch and before the site even had a name, Viacom executives have praised Hulu in concept. Just yesterday, MTV exec Van Toffler said, "We've been talking to [Hulu] since the beginning, and we like it a lot." Mostly because it's not YouTube, of course. -
online video
Viacom execs tempted by Hulu dance?
A NewTeeVee report suggests Viacom and its subsidiaries may be moving closer to licensing content to Hulu, NBC Universal and News Corp.'s Web video joint venture. "We've been talking to them since the beginning, and we like it a lot," MTV exec Van Toffler told NewTeeVee. He described Hulu as "sleek and simple." We hear MTV is as likely to syndicate content on Hulu as it is on Amazon Unbox or anywhere else. Another MTV exec, Courtney Holt, said, "We're really bullish on syndicating our content." $1 billion says they're not thinking of YouTube. (Photo by L.x. Fringes) -
comcast
Hulu's true purpose revealed
Today Comcast announced its bid to port its video-on-demand business to the Internet. The plan, audaciously named Project Infinity, can most immediately be seen at Fancast.com, a site for free streaming video. But what the move mostly highlights isn't Comcast's ambitions but the strategy of its partners — CBS and Hulu, the NBC/News Corp. joint venture. CBS has said it would rather distribute its video widely across the Web than labor to lure viewers to CBS.com. Hulu, likewise, is not really a destination site like Google's YouTube; its a video-syndication arm. Nothing illustrates this better than Comcast's Fancast, where every NBC and Fox video is Hulu-branded. -
hulu
Veoh goes for the simple way to grab video
Lazy, scummy, and smart. That's just the way we like them. YouTube-wannabe Veoh has jumped into Hulu's hoop by adding streaming video from all the Fox and NBC properties we know and love. Only, unlike Hulu, a joint venture between NBC and News Corp., or any of its distribution partners, Veoh hasn't actually worked out any licensing deals. Rather, it's following the smarter tactic pioneered by OpenHulu of embedding Hulu videos into its own site. More » -
clips
Hulu viewers like watching hot girls
The beta testers on Hulu, News Corp. and NBC's video site, like hot girls just as much as the rest of us. The two most viewed videos of all time? A clip from 30 Rock called "Wear a Bra" and another from Keeping Up with The Kardashians that showcases a comely blonde sunbathing. See both videos after the jump. Other top clips? Most from Saturday Night Live, including "Lazy Sunday," the video that kickstarted YouTube for the masses, and Natalie Portman rapping. More » -
hulu
A gift for our dear readers: 10,000 Hulu Invites
I saw a theme this morning as I perused the various other tech sites: Hulu invites! Hulu, the video-streaming partnership between News Corp. and NBC, is throwing open its doors to many early adopters by offering up thousands of invites on several tech sites. If you haven't gotten a chance to play around with Hulu and want to see just what the hell Paul Boutin is complaining about, here's your chance. GigaOm, Read/WriteWeb, TechCrunch, and Mashable are giving away 2,500 invites each. All, we note, are clients of Federated Media, John Battelle's online-ad network. Coincidence, conspiracy, or just part of a future Hulu advertising campaign? -
online video
OpenHulu getting hate mail, acquisition offers
While NBC Universal and News Corp. keep Hulu, their online-video joint venture, under invitation-only wraps, OpenHulu, an independent website which appears to be legally embedding Hulu videos, is actually starting to earn some cash. Not only that, but it's getting a little attention from potential buyers, too. Not bad for just copying and pasting chunks of HTML code. More » -
openhulu
Why can't Google figure out how to make money off Hulu?
OpenHulu is the unauthorized website with all the Hulu videos embedded, allowing you to watch Fox and NBC TV shows even if you don't have an invite to the NBC/News Corp. service's private beta. After blog posts about the site hit the Digg front page yesterday, traffic spiked. Between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. today, OpenHulu saw 104,051 ad impressions, site operator Mazyar Kazerooni told me. So how well did Google AdSense do for the site? More » -
hulu
Blogger opens Hulu to the masses
NBC and News Corp.'s joint Web-video venture Hulu remains in an invitation-only beta. But if you can't wait to access "Conan the Barbarian" online, blogger Matt Schlicht has your workaround. It's called OpenHulu. It's full of embedded Hulu videos like Arrested Development clip below. Other than whatever cash he's earning from Google ads he runs on the site, why's Schlicht taking so much time to index Hulu's content? "It's mainly the satisfaction of sticking it to the man and bending the rules," Schlict tells Last100. Sticking it to The Man by promoting his ad-supported content on your site and stirring up as much enthusiasm for his product as possible. Yeah! That'll teach him! More » -
online video
Writers' strike costs NBC big bucks
NBC has started the painful process of issuing refunds — about $500,000 apiece — to advertisers. Why? The network is not meeting prime-time ratings projections. Something to do with a bunch of greedy, striking writers who I fully blame for the rather hurried, ramshackle conclusion of Heroes' second season. But it's hard to fault the Writers Guild when NBC, along with every other network on the planet, is making a huge push onto the Web — Hulu, NBC Direct, and other online means of stiffing the writers. But NBC isn't the only one who will be hemorrhaging cash. According to Mediaweek, ratings are so poor that most networks are out of makegoods — free ad airtime to compensate for shortfalls — and will be forced to issue refunds like NBC. Worse news: If the strike continues, NBC plans to fill its programming gaps with reality TV. YouTube's looking better and better every day. -
online video
For all those whining about Hulu's video quality, the NBC-News Corp. venture as added high-definition content to its Web library. Right now, offerings are limited to a few movie trailers, but we're betting shows will pop up in HD before long. Not that that solves Hulu's terrible interface or lack of selection, of course. [NewTeeVee]

























