James Siminoff

Hulu on the brain

Image via CrunchBase

I really loved Hulu until they started messing with my favorite new tech toy, Boxee.  For those who do not know Boxee is a open source software that can run on PC’s and Apple TV (what I currently run it on).  Also to put it bluntly, it is the future of television.

Hulu decided (their content providers forced them) to stop working with Boxee.  Since then Boxee has done countless workarounds to keep Hulu working but for my own user experience it has never been the same.

The root problem is that a Hulu view of a TV show is much less profitable then a TV viewer.  Part of the problem is the cost of bandwidth but the main problem is poor execution.

Hulu should be getting at least double the revenue per viewer then TV, here is why:

1. You have to watch the ads. With Hulu you can not fast forward the ads, this is a huge win for advertisers who are being killed by DVR’s.
2. They know who you are. Right now they do not force this but they have the ability to get every drop of info out of you.  In fact if I were them I would load something like Blogrollr to capture every bit of info on you including where you go on the web.
3. They have exclusive content. Sure you can steal the content on bit torrent but the people doing that will never use Hulu anyway.  If you want to legally watch shows like The Office for free at anytime you have to go to Hulu.
4. They know when you watch. Another huge advantage for advertisers is catering ads based on time of day, day of week, holiday, etc.
5. They know where you are. IP address location is over 98% accurate.  They know exactly where you are.
6. They are more convenient the TV. This convenience should allow them to put in more ads not less as they currently do.
7. You could buy something while you are on Hulu. Unlike cable, Internet is a 2 way medium.  Smart advertisements could take advantage of this.  For example click on a offer and your next 5 shows will have no ads, buy something on that offer and your next 20 shows will have now ads…

So Hulu has a system that kicks televisions ass from the advertisers perspective yet they can only seem to fill their content with public service announcements.  Because of their inability to figure this out they have been forced by their content providers to make enemies out of the very instruments that will insure their success.

Currently the CEO of Hulu has stated they have 3 customers, content providers, advertisers and viewers.  He is wrong, too many cooks in the kitchen, content provider is Hulu’s only customer.  As long as they get exclusive content, the eyeballs will come, with the eyeballs comes monetization through advertising and that in turn allow them to extend their business to every customer including those on Boxee.

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