After a flow of dominance, the once mighty Hulu is looking fragile. The live tv website is still not devising money and is now facing the terror of losing exchange premium issue as providers decide to do their own thing. The decision by Viacom to move out two very popular shows from the Hulu schedule shows that the real top executive is with the networks, and that Hulu on its own is little more than a shop window.
Is Hulu arrival its sell by date?
The Viacom episode just enforces to Hulu what the networks have been slowly doing to the live internet tv website. Slowly getting more stringent with what they allow Hulu to show, removing some shows and allowing fewer episodes to be streamed online. Gene Liebel, of digital ad agency Huge said:- “You pay more for niche audiences and targeted networks than on generalized sites like Hulu. Hulu charges less for the ads, so Viacom’s gross revenue people are out there being tenderloin by their own content.”
It seems that Hulu has served its intent, launched initially to try and cut down on the rampant online piracy by providing the content for free online. So popular has the site been that it can now entreaty over 44 million viewers every month. But now that Hulu has achieved these goals the online tv providers now dont want to share so much revenue with Hulu.
Arash Amel of Screen Digest commented:- “It was a very interesting platform when it launched, but in terms of conception it’s going to be very intriguing. The other big media content partners who aren’t the main three backers have woken up to the fact that they can probably do it themselves. You will see some of the bigger brands pulling back and say, ‘We’re going to make our own versions of a mini-Hulu and license the player alternatively of giving you the content,’ ” said Amel.
Hulu presently hosts the shows and sells the ads giving a 70% cut of revenue to the providers while pocketing the remaining 30%. If Hulu were to cut back its take it would be similar to commiting Hari-Kari as it still cannot make a profit currently. So what does Hulu do? It may have to live on more of a media platform, allowing the providers to embed their own video players on the site and have control of the advertising.
Of course Hulu is still planning to roll out a subscription service and charge for premium content, withal, the initial aim of reducing piracy will be negated by this carry out. One thing is for sure, the Hulu you see (if it still exists) in a few months will be a very dissimilar creature.




