-
Hulu's Kilar: "Hulu Plus now a material portion" of Revenues
I was surprised to hear Hulu CEO Jason Kilar say in this short CNBC interview that while advertising accounts for the bulk of its revenues, Hulu Plus is "already accounting for a material portion" of its revenues. In the interview, Kilar had previously mentioned that in 2010 Hulu would generate $260 million in revenues, compared to $108 million in 2009, an impressive jump that beat its internal target of $190 million.
However, it's hard to see how, just a month after its formal launch, Hulu Plus could already be material to Hulu's performance. Even if it had 500,000 subscribers (which feels optimistic), that would be $4 million/mo (at its $8/mo rate) in subscription revenue, whereas Hulu may well be generating $25-30 million/mo in ad revenue to get to the $260M figure. Maybe it's just a definition of what's "material." As I've said before though, the bigger question is how Hulu Plus competes on the content acquisition front. With the recent Disney-ABC and NBCU content deals, Netflix is undermining Hulu Plus' core broadcast TV value proposition and people who subscribe to both Netflix and Hulu Plus will quickly see this.Categories: Aggregators
-
Google Not Ready To Announce Fiber Winning Communities
Google broke months of radio silence on its 1 gbps fiber to the home experiment this week just to mention that it's still not ready to announce where the next generation network will be deployed. No surprise, Google has been inundated with interest, from almost 1,100 communities around the U.S.
This week's update was penned by Milo Medin, who was a key architect of the @Home broadband network (remember them?). That's an encouraging sign that Google is adding the expertise to help make this fiber project a success. In my original reactions to the project, one of my chief concerns was that Google had bitten off more than it could chew on the network and in-home installation/customer service fronts. Google will need to add further experienced people in these areas to improve the odds of success in achieving its goals (though it's still not exactly clear what its goals are with this project).Categories: Broadband ISPs
Topics: Google
-
Tiffany Demonstrates Online Video Works For Luxury Retailers Too
This week I somehow found my way to an interesting article in "Luxury Daily" about how high-end retailer Tiffany & Co. has developed a multi-platform video campaign this holiday season. Tiffany has created a series of video vignettes that the article says it has "weaved into its web site branding, social media offerings and a rich media expandable banner ad campaign on the homepage of the New York Times web site." I didn't see it there, but was able to catch it on YouTube. The minute and a half video does a terrific job of evoking the holiday spirit through the Tiffany brand.
What's important about the video to me is that it's further proof of how all kinds of brands can use video to break out of the box of traditional TV advertising. Tiffany likely would have had a hard time finding exactly the upscale audience it is targeting with a TV campaign, and of course running a minute and a half ad on TV would be completely uneconomical. With the Internet those constrictions are thrown out, and instead Tiffany can execute exactly the creative it wants and then find multiple ways to distribute it and target particular audiences.
Categories: Commerce
Topics: NYTimes.com, Tiffany
-
VideoNuze Report Podcast #82 - Dec. 17, 2010
Daisy Whitney and I are back this week for the 82nd edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for December 17, 2010. This will be the final podcast of 2010 and we both want to wish our listeners happy holidays. Daisy and I have have had lots of fun cranking out 32 podcasts this year on all the most important industry topics. We're looking forward to continuing on in 2011.
And speaking of 2011, in this final podcast of the year we turn our sights ahead and discuss the 6 key online/mobile video trends that The Diffusion Group's Colin Dixon and I outlined during Wednesday's webinar (replay and slides available here). Daisy and I focus the bulk of the podcast on two of these predictions: how Netflix will strain under its spectacular growth, and how pay-TV subscriber losses will mount and cord-cutting perceptions could become reality.
Click here to listen to the podcast (13 minutes, 16 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: Aggregators, Podcasts, Predictions
Topics: Netflix, Podcast, Predictions
-
Fanhattan Targets Content Discovery On Connected Devices
Combine all those new connected devices being deployed with the byzantine world of movies' and TV shows' rights windows and you get a pretty confusing landscape. That's where a new service called Fanhattan, being announced today, comes in. Fanhattan is a cloud-based app for connected devices that is dynamically updated according to the ever-changing rights windows. CEO Gilles BianRosa, who has run sister company Vuze, gave me a rundown yesterday.
Fanhattan has acquired The Open Movie Database (TMDb) to power the listings and is augmenting them with related assets and information from around the web to create what Gilles calls an "entertainment graph" connecting content, metadata, sources and device availability in one database. For the user, the experience could be compelling; say you want to watch "Inception." Is it on Amazon, Vudu, Netflix, iTunes, Hulu or elsewhere? And what is the best price? Fanhattan would expose the various choices that your connected device is eligible for and offer 1-click purchase or rental access. That improves upon today's connected device user's experience of having to check across multiple options or maybe just defaulting to what's easiest, say what's on Netflix.
Categories: Startups, Video Search
Topics: Fanhattan
-
6 Key 2011 Trends in Online and Mobile Video
Yesterday Colin Dixon from The Diffusion Group and I presented a webinar describing our 6 key trends for 2011 in online and mobile video. Colin is one of the sharpest analysts of the pay-TV and online/mobile video industries and we had no shortage of ideas to sort through. Our list is a joint effort, and during the webinar we each presented the 3 trends we felt the strongest about. In today's post I share and explain each one. At the end of the webinar we conducted a poll asking attendees whether they agreed or disagreed with our predictions. I've noted those results in bold font. If you want to download the slides and/or hear more of our detailed discussion, just register for the on-demand version of the webinar and you'll be emailed a link.
Categories: Aggregators, Broadband ISPs, Cable TV Operators, Mobile Video, Predictions, Regulation, Satellite, Technology, Telcos
Topics: FCC, Google, Net Neutrality, Netflix, TV Everywhere
-
New "ACC Vault" Launches With Classic Men's Basketball Games
Online video continues to make reliving the best moments of your favorite sports teams easier and the latest example is the new "ACC Vault" launching today. Through a partnership of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Raycom Sports and Thought Equity Motion, an archive of full-length, classic ACC Tournament and regular season men's basketball games from the 12 member programs dating to 1983 are now freely available to visitors (for an example, see the below clip of UNC's Michael Jordan hitting a nice jumper against Duke in 1984). The partners plan to add more sports highlights over time and envision ACC Vault eventually becoming an "all sport video Wikipedia."
Categories: Sports, Technology
Topics: ACC, ACC Vault, NCAA Vault, Raycom Sports, Thought Equity Motion
-
Online Video Ad Network SpotXchange Raises $12 Million
Online video ad network SpotXchange is announcing this morning that it has raised $12 million from H.I.G Growth Partners, in its first round of institutional capital. Proceeds will be used to further build-out its video ad solution and
also to expand internationally. SpotXchange is ranked as one of the top 5 video ad networks by comScore and recently launched SpotMarket RTB, a real-time auction-based market where buyers can bid on an impression-by-impression basis.
The SpotXchange news further underscores a sizzling year of financings and M&A for video ad networks. This space is attracting strong investor attention because of the growing recognition that huge online video audiences and ever-improving content is inevitably going to draw more ad dollars to the medium. In addition, online video advertising offers clear benefits over traditional TV advertising such as better targeting and interactivity. Just last week eMarketer forecast 30+%/year annual growth in online video ad spending, driving the category up to $6 billion by 2014. Throughout the year I've noted various innovations in online video ad units and I expect this will continue alongside the online video industry's rapid growth next year.
What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).
Note: SpotXchange is a VideoNuze sponsor.Categories: Advertising, Deals & Financings
Topics: SpotXchange
VideoNuze Posts
Connect with VideoNuze
Exclusive News Roundup
- The Cable Business Is In Flux. Altice USA’s CEO Thinks There’s a Path Forward The Hollywood Reporter
- Max to Get ‘More Assertive’ in Blocking Password-Sharing Users Later This Year, WBD Exec Says Variety
- Creators Are Building Their Own Supersized Studio System As Hollywood Cuts Back The Hollywood Reporter
- Netflix Overhauls Its Home Screen for the First Time in 12 Years NY Times
- Netflix debuts its generative AI-powered search tool TechCrunch
- Comcast's cable spinoff to be named Versant, picked to emphasize corporate versatility CNBC
