I first read about hulu in a recent edition of BusinessWeek (“The Anti-YouTube Is Starting to Click” by Tom Lowry in the October 6th magazine) and was interested in the concept. After using the site, I am sold. Hulu's mission, “to help people find and enjoy the world's premium video content when, where and how they want it,” is a welcome proposition to viewers who want to watch full TV episodes and popular movies free online. I missed a few of my favorite shows last week, but thanks to Hulu, I could watch them all on my computer, no Ti-Vo or iTunes purchase required.
With network-licensed content, Hulu has full rights to offer advertising on the videos shown on its site (as opposed to Youtube, a hosting service for user-generated content). Advertisers are buying up the 15- to 30- second spots Hulu places before or during TV shows and movies to reach the growing number of loyal users. The BusinessWeek article reported that “Hulu users on average spent 256 minutes in August watching videos, up from 169 minutes in July. That was the longest time spent among all Web brands, according to Nielson.”
Despite its growing popularity, the question remains as to whether or not Hulu can remain in its current format and still make enough money to be successful.