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First Fox, Now Disney, Reportedly Renewing Hulu's Distribution Rights
As if this week's intrigue around Hulu putting itself up for sale hasn't been enough, Bloomberg is reporting that Disney has tentatively agreed to renew
Hulu's distribution rights for ABC programs. The deal is said to mirror another tentative deal, between Fox and Hulu, which Variety reported earlier this week. Both deals are believed to require Hulu carry an increased ad load.
Since company representatives aren't quoted, it's hard to know how legit the renewals are, or whether they're just another leak to support one of the many agendas players involved in Hulu have. Of course, that's how the week began - with the WSJ citing unidentified sources saying that Yahoo had made an overture to acquire Hulu. That was followed by news that Hulu had retained 2 investment banks to explore a sale, and then with the Fox renewal news.
Categories: Aggregators, Broadcasters
Topics: Comcast, Disney, Hulu, News Corp.
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Perrier Scoring With Interactive YouTube Campaign
Add Perrier to the list of brands that are discovering the power of running creative video campaigns on YouTube. Perrier launched a clever interactive experience called "Le Club Perrier" 2 weeks ago that appears to be driving significant viewership and engagement. Viewers are invited to watch and pass along links to videos in order to "unlock" the next versions which promise to get "sexier, steamier and wilder as the number of viewers goes up" (right, could they make it more tempting?).
It seems to be working though, at least according to the viewership meter, which indicates nearly 7 million total views to date (the campaign is also #5 on this week's AdAge/Visible Measures Viral Video Chart, though with a far lower view count). Part of the mystery is that it's not clear how many times the videos have been shared via email, Twitter or Facebook, or what it takes to unlock the next version. However, the invitations to share are heavily promoted and follow each video segment.
Categories: Advertising
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #101 - More on Hulu Sale - June 24, 2011
In this week's podcast, Daisy and I discuss the potential sale of Hulu, which was the big story of the week in the online video world. We recorded the podcast just prior to the news breaking that Hulu has retained investment bankers. Obviously there's been a lot of speculation this week about a sale, and since Hulu's main asset is exclusive online distribution rights to its 3 owners' programs, I maintain that to the extent that those rights are diluted, Hulu's valuation will diminish and a sale will be more challenging.
Click here to listen to the podcast (12 minutes, 32 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: Aggregators, Broadcasters, Deals & Financings
Topics: Hulu
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LongTail.tv Targets Small to Mid-Sized Publishers With Hosted Video Solution
LongTail Video, the company behind the free, hugely popular JW Player, has launched a public beta of LongTail.tv, which includes a hosted version of the JW Player, a gallery of embeddable videos from 5Min (and others soon) and turnkey advertising. Dave Otten, co-founder and CEO of Long Tail, told me that with LongTail.tv addresses small to mid-sized customers' demands for a solution that requires minimal technical expertise, offers easy access to premium content and provides incremental revenue. LongTail.tv has been in private beta with 300 publishers for over a month.
While LongTail.tv allows publishers to insert URLs to their own videos (an upload option and other features are coming soon with the full integration of LongTail's Bits on the Run OVP product) to play within the hosted JW player, the main value proposition is gaining access to the 5Min videos, which are sorted by category and new revenue. A publisher can simply grab the "Arts" or "Business" channels and a curated set of up-to-date videos from various 5Min content partners will be available on its site.
Categories: Syndicated Video Economy, Technology
Topics: 5Min, LongTail Video, LongTail.tv
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OK, Hulu's for Sale; Can a Deal Get Done and Who are the Frontrunners?
Following yesterday's rumors, the LA Times is now reporting that Hulu has hired two investment banks, Guggenheim Partners and Morgan Stanley, toexplore a potential sale. As I described in Here's Why Any Deal For Hulu Is Unlikely, the banks have their work cut out for them. The critical issue is that Hulu's main asset - exclusive next-day distribution rights to 3 of the 4 broadcast TV networks' programs (ABC, FOX and NBC) - will be at the heart of Hulu's valuation. (Note that just 6 months ago Hulu's plan to go public was undermined by these same rights not being viewed as sufficiently long-term).
To the extent that the rights get diluted (e.g. become non-exclusive, limit monetization opportunities, delay program release windows, reduce the number of programs, etc.), acquirers will ratchet down their valuations accordingly. And this is where the banks' task will become especially complicated; each of the networks' owners (Disney, News Corp. and Comcast) has very different strategic objectives which are further clouded by all the uncertainty that online and mobile video has created. Pinning down if and how they would work with each specific bidder will be quite the Rubik's cube exercise.
Categories: Aggregators, Broadcasters, Deals & Financings
Topics: Comcast, Disney, Hulu, News Corp.
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Here's Why Any Deal For Hulu Is Unlikely
Late yesterday, the WSJ reported that an unnamed company made an unsolicited offer to acquire Hulu, prompting Hulu's board to consider soliciting other offers. Following up, the LA Times reported that Yahoo is the bidder. However, neither article cited any named sources and so it's unclear how legit any of this is. But even if it is legit, the odds of any Hulu acquisition at this point are actually quite low. Here's why:
Categories: Aggregators, Deals & Financings
Topics: Comcast, Disney, Hulu, News Corp.
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Time Warner Cable Promoting WatchESPN App for Wimbledon Viewing
Time Warner Cable is sending the below email to subscribers promoting the WatchESPN app for anytime/anywhere Wimbledon viewing. The email is the first consumer-facing example I've seen of a cable operator promoting a specific cable programmer's TV Everywhere app.
The email's copy hits the right messages nicely, emphasizing free access for existing Digital TV customers, anytime/anywhere/anyplace access on mobile devices and tablets, and easy app download instructions. The email is a winner in terms of getting the message out that TWC understands its subscribers' new viewing expectations and that it delivering a service that meets them.
Categories: Cable Networks, Cable TV Operators, Sports
Topics: ESPN, Time Warner Cable, Wimbledon
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MLB: Mobile Use of Our Content Will Exceed Online Within 12-18 Months
At the recent ELEVATE conference, Noah Garden, EVP, Revenue for MLB Advanced Media forecasted that MLB's page views from mobile devices will exceed those from online within the next 12-18 months. Mobile has become a huge growth driver for MLB, rising from just 8% of use in 2008 to 37% last year as smartphones and tablets have exploded. In addition, Noah said that MLB is on pace to sell 2 million subscriptions to its MLB.tv and mobile services this year, up from last year's 1.5 million. MLB has launched 100 million streams of games this year, up 47% vs. last year.
Noah's comments came during a session I moderated with him and Mike Gaffney, CRO of video ad platform Auditude (full video after the jump). The session focused on how premium content providers are using both paid and ad-supported strategies to fully exploit the value of their content, rather than looking it the options as one or the other. As Noah said, "we want to be on any device that has a plug and a battery" to reach all targeted consumers with MLB.tv equally. Since MLB has been one of the key leaders in online/mobile video distribution, its initiatives are widely followed in the industry.
Categories: Mobile Video, Sports
Topics: Auditude, ELEVATE, MLB
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