Sunday, February 10, 2008
Hulu: A New Media Future for Old Media?
Last year NBC got all proprietary about their content, taking down all their shows and clips from YouTube and iTunes, realizing that as neat as these new platforms were, they weren't proving themselves profitable for the mediamaker. Yes, YouTube has a massive audience, but an immature method of profit-sharing and (sans the embed feature) an inflexible presentation platform for those who want to control the viewing experience. iTunes, too has a massive audience, but their one-size-fits-all pricing pissed off the media producer who wanted their pound-o-flesh.
Enter Hulu. When NBC announced that they were going to make their own absurdly named version of YouTube, media critics and competitors shouted a collective you've-gotta-be-kidding-me. The market dominance of YouTube is unquestionable. And the image of an old media player attempting to be like "one of the kids" was laughable.
However, in the week after the Superbowl Hulu's Beta Site got a ton of traffic when blogs used their embed codes to syndicate the best of the Superbowl ads. We got our hands on a Hulu Beta account and took it for a test run on our own and here's our review:
• Interface (4 out 5 stars): Pretty cool. With pop-out, widescreen, and fullscreen options you can view content a bunch of different ways. Uses the ubiquitous Flash - content loads super quickly with few hiccups. In terms of selecting content, the interactivity is pretty cool - Netflix style rollovers give you a snapshot of each program. You can add content to your own personal playlist to watch later. The pages are huge though - lots of intense scrolling down the page to view comments and related content.
• User Interactivity (3 out of 5 stars): You can supposedly use Hulu's internal application to remix content you find on Hulu, but the extent to which you can cut is weak. There's no option for uploading, but that's not the point of the site. Embedding for sharing is great, but embedding hulu content seems 90% pointless since most of the pieces are full shows, or clips from shows, rather than the kind of "Check out this video of a baby biting a boy's finger" stuff you find on YouTube.
• Content (4.8 out of 5 stars): Content is where Hulu excels. Hulu hosts full seasons of many current shows like "24" and "The Office" and even old shows like "Doogie Howser, M.D." and movies like "Sideways". It will be great to see the libraries expand (they only have four episodes of Family Guy, for instance). 15-second ads are embedded in the programs at natural scene breaks (usually only two or three times per show) so you don't even need to get up to go to the bathroom or get a snack. Hulu's genius is that they realize audience desire to have permanent, immediate, free access to a large and diverse amount of high quality non-commercial programming, unencumbered by the proliferation of crap found on YouTube. While many networks host their content online, Hulu functions as a handsome, centralized clearinghouse. Loses marks for not having all full seasons of "24," though.
• Potential Future in the Market (? out of ? stars) - Hulu, along with the revamped Apple TV with rentals and Netflix's free unlimited streaming with rumors of a similar set-top device will create more pressure for platform compatibility. In the near future consumers will want to have the flexibility to watch EVERYTHING on EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE in high def, and immediately. Can distributors meet the challenge of allowing users to stream ALL of their content from a server, to their computer, to their TV, to their PMP/cell, to the web, and back with similar functionality on all platforms?
With any luck, Hulu will put on the pressure.
With any luck, Hulu will put on the pressure.
Labels: convergence, technology
at 10:50 AM 
