The Hulu experience
From my personal trials with Hulu (with some tweaking, accessible in this part of the world as well), I must say, that they are succeeding in bringing a great experience. The list of shows provided contains such hits as Prison Break and Heroes, oldies like Miami Vice and quite some recent movies as well. The content is ad supported, but I am more than willing to wait a couple of minutes for my show to start in high quality full screen stream and not be bothered with downloading it somewhere, which is the case when you want to do it illegally or when you purchase something in the iTunes Store. It simply saves a lot of hassle, and that is a great feat to have these days.
The platform vs the destination
As we’ve been thinking of the new role for media organizations in the years to come, we’ve stated that it won’t be so much the destination or the place but rather the ability of facilitating a platform between consumers and content or consumers and advertisers that will matter most. I think there’s a very important subtle aspect in that premise. I didn’t say that for media organizations it was about facilitating a platform between users and other users. There are many examples of that around that succeed in that in the best possible way. However, for a sustainable business model facilitating that connection, a user-user connection might not be as important as connection between users and content and advertisers (note: although Hulu does have you create profiles and allows you to interact with others, the social angle is still limited)
Case in point: YouTube. Although they are quite good in connecting people via mostly low-end content, they haven’t really been able to monetize their social value, yet. It remains to be seen which advertisers are willing to connect their brands to the kind of low-end and illegal content that is primarily available on the 1.65 billion dollar platform. In the short term, my guess would be that such willingness will remain low: although a new media mentaility is brewing, we’re not there yet. The same is true for most other social platforms that are available. As we’ve said before, the coming years will all be about HOW you create value, as opposed to WHAT you do. So, the coming years, these business models will have to proof their validity, for the platforms to stay afloat.
Hulu, instead, is creating a platform as well. But unlike YouTube, they are succeeding in connecting high quality content with users and advertisers. Especially in the coming years, advertisers will look for sure bets and connecting your brand to this kind of quality is much more secure than the other route. Combined with the ease of use and the great quality of picture, I would say, that Hulu indeed will be able to beat YouTube at its game in the coming 18 months, as was suggest by the FT article as well.
Long lasting effects
The big question is of course, whether the effects will be long lasting. I have grown more convinced these days of the holes in the argument of the Long Tail theory. As such, I do think there’s much to say for the big hits attracting even bigger audiences and those ‘gems’ in the tail, actually not picking up at all, because of a peer-2-peer or network effect. Even though, in both arguments the illegal downloading aspect is forgotten, I think that Hulu might actually succeed in people not wanting or needing to get their content illegally any more.
But. There’s always a but isn’t there? In this case it is the rights management issue all over again. The content of Hulu is restricted for access from the US alone. As I’ve already stated, there are ways around that easily. And as people will discover this ‘gem’ of the legal content streams, that issue will grow bigger. It simply can’t be stopped or managed in this way. So, for Hulu to have a long lasting effect, and reach global appeal, their are still many burdens to overcome. Because, if not, the Hulu success might come to an abrupt halt before the year is over.
