hulu

I was surfing around the Web today and didn't have to go far to find a quick column by Matt Asay over on CNET's "Open Road" discussing YouTube and Hulu.

In a piece entitled, "Quality pays: Hulu trumping YouTube," Asay makes the point that because of Hulu's $12 million profit, Google needs to do more with YouTube. Asay believes that Google "needs to show equal care for the [entertainment] industry's IP" and "improve quality."

Generalizations aside, I need to disagree with my colleague on what YouTube should do. Asay claims that YouTube shouldn't become Hulu, but I think that's plain wrong. Hulu is a success today not because it has high-quality programming or respects intellectual property. Hulu is a success today because all the content contained on the site is controlled and demographic data is readily available.

Rest assured that no matter how much money Google is losing on YouTube, it's well worth the cost. No matter what we may think about YouTube and its obvious issues, we can't lose sight of the fact that without all that copyrighted material, YouTube wouldn't be half as popular as it is today and whether Google wants to admit it or not, it needs those clips on there.

It's no longer a question of whether user-generated video is important -- it is -- or if it should be kept on YouTube. User-generated video is how YouTube can bring people to the site and allow it to funnel those people to professional content that Google can monetize. User-generated video isn't the key to making money, it's the professional video that matters most to advertisers.… Read more

We discover a fun new tautology on today's show (you know, competition...for the win?), have a fun time goofing off with Brian Tong, rail against Apple's decision to include HDCP restrictions in its new MacBooks, and rejoice at the arrival of Netflix streaming on the Xbox 360 (minus a few select Sony movies, ahem). Also: India takes on Google in the Earth-spying department. Yeah, India! Go, India!

Apple’s new MacBooks have built-in copy protection measures (thanks Mager!) http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/11/18/apples_new_macbooks_have_built_in_copy_protection_measures.html http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/11/17/apple-brings-hdcp-to-a-new-aluminum-macbook-near-you… Read more

Over at All Things Digital, Peter Kafka has some interesting news for those that believe YouTube won the online video war: it's actually losing.

Hulu.com, that stodgy competitor created by News Corp. and NBC, is beating YouTube, at least in terms of profit: Hulu is making roughly $12 million in profit, while YouTube is bleeding cash, according to Screen Digest analyst Arash Amel, with whom Kafka spoke:

Amel's model assumes that while Hulu is showing far fewer video streams to many fewer people than Google, it is able to sell ads on most of them-perhaps 80 percent … Read more

User-generated video is great, but there aren't any opportunities for making money, which makes it useless to video services. Find out why in my latest video.

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It has always been in the back of many minds that having many not quite legal and not quite professional videos on your site might just affect advertising revenue.

Now Arash Amel, an analyst at Screen Digest, a company that researches digital media, is forecasting that Hulu's U.S. revenue will rival that of YouTube next year, his estimated number being $180 million. (Hulu, backed by NBC and Fox, hasn't even gotten around to launching in the rest of the world yet.)

Mr. Amal makes YouTube's earnings sound like profit of doom: "YouTube is in a … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Hulu CEO Jason Kilar readily acknowledges that digital movie sales from sites such as iTunes mean higher profit margins for Hollywood studios than ad-supported sites can deliver.

But Kilar defended ad-supported services like YouTube and Hulu--formed by News Corp., and NBC Universal--by pointing out that they can draw from a much larger market. Film sales account for $20 billion annually, while ad-supported revenue is $80 billion, Kilar said during his keynote address at the NewTeeVee Live conference on Thursday.

Kilar was responding to comments made by Tom Adams, who operates Adams Media Research, an entertainment industry research and consulting … Read more

Now you can put a TV on your MySpace profile--sort of.

The News Corp.-owned social network has built a new widget for its developer platform called "Primetime," a video player that syndicates much of the professionally created content available on its MySpaceTV media hub. Included in that roster is video from Hulu (a joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal), Warner Bros., Sony, and other MySpace content partners as well as the social network's original video content.

It's also searchable, and provides another outlet for MySpace's video ads. Since it's a developer … Read more

Sling Media no longer wants to be put into a box--the theoretical kind, anyway.

Previously just a maker of hardware like the Slingbox, and related software, the company is now thinking bigger. With the official launch of Sling.com fast approaching, the small Silicon Valley company--bought last year by EchoStar--is making a bid to be taken seriously as an entertainment company.

Currently in private beta until November 24, Sling.com is a shiny new video portal that pulls in TV episodes, clips, full-length movies, and professionally produced Web videos to a single destination. The free content is provided by the NBC-Fox partnership Hulu, along with CBS (parent company of CBS Interactive, CNET's publisher), PBS, BBC America, and Web video sites like College Humor and Break.com, to name just a few. There are short ads before and during the videos.

Up until now, Sling had been mainly in the business of creating hardware and software that allow consumers to get their TV channels from remote devices.

The Slingbox, which allows owners to watch their own subscription TV channels remotely from a computer, marked the first introduction to Sling Media for many consumers. Then the company began releasing the SlingPlayer as downloadable software for Symbian, Palm OS, and Windows Mobile that lets Slingbox owners also get their TV channels on mobile phones. BlackBerry and iPhone versions are on the way.

Sling then turned from just moving TV to the Web, and began pushing the idea of moving Web video to the TV with its SlingCatcher product, which started shipping last month.

Now, by creating a new Web destination, the company is turning the Internet into yet another destination for its customers to watch the channels they subscribe to along with a host of free, ad-supported content. … Read more

If YouTube and Hulu are to become Web movie houses, will they be the online equivalents of those gleaming multiplexes where all the latest releases appear? Or will they be the revival houses that screen only outdated flicks?

Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) caused a stir on Monday by announcing it will become the first Hollywood studio to post full-length feature films to YouTube. But while long-form movies are unprecedented for YouTube, MGM has plans to offer only a handful of older titles, such as Bulletproof Monk and The Magnificent Seven.

Some of the studios are easing their way into YouTube … Read more