Hulu - Online video's new model | Hacker News Reader

Hulu - Online video's new model

economist.com

22 pointsamrithk11 comments

I wouldn't exactly call Hulu a new model. It's basically broadcast's model adapted for the web. You see premium content (and shows like the Office are premium content compared to many of the home-made YouTube clips) and watch ads in exchange. Likewise, content is only available for a limited time and then it reappears as reruns later.

It's a wonderful service and it's polished like none-other with a great interface and 480p video (very good by web standards). However, its success is more based upon the fact that it's a joint-venture of Fox and NBC who supply it with content that people want to see than its technical merits. I love it, I'm grateful it exists and that it's so awesomely nice to use. At the same time, I can't really draw many lessons from its success. Maybe: get partners with monopolies on good content which will drive users to your site?

You got that right!

Not new at all, I was always confused that it took so long for all the media companies to realize you could do the 'exact same' advertising for online video as you did with TV. Just let people watch when ever they want on demand and it would be far superior to cable.

It only took them like 5 years since streaming video quality was decent to figure it out... hehe

Remember when many here (including myself) were at best skeptical of what Arrington called "Clown Co.?" Mea culpa:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5694 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5972

That certainly would have made an interesting contrast to the "Hulu is the one that's figuring it all out" theme.

Hulu is fantastic. I canceled my cable TV when I realized all the shows I watch are on there. With the money I saved I bought a mini computer just for my HDTV.

Yeah me too, as I have my Mac Mini connected to my LCD TV & use a wireless hand-held mouse as remote.

All together I pay $50 a month for Internet & limited cable (Internet is cheaper when you purchase limited cable).

Same here. But, I wish there was a way to get HBO.

Does buying HBO shows via, say, iTunes cost more or less than subscribing regularly to HBO?

That's actually a good question. I watch a limited number of shows, and I wonder if simply buying the DVD's of a program would turn out to be cheaper than actually subscribing.

Edit: I mean I've seen boxsets in BestBuy for as little as $25 and they're shows I watch.

If I had all the series of Simpsons, Futurama, Mythbusters, Family Guy and American Dad I believe from then on I believe I would rather use the monthly subscription fee (about $150 here for all the channels we want; TMN is great to have as they're free of charge for a monthly fee, I get all the recent Stargate and Dexter episodes and most of the big movies not too long after they're out for rental) for buying more boxsets and movie rentals.

The only HBO show I've bought myself was The Wire, on sale for $90 the entire season. That's less than $2 an episode. iTunes sells shows for $20 a season? That would be $100 for all of The Wire.

How much does HBO charge a month?

I don't think we get the actual HBO channel here in Canada, but The Movie Network (TMN) has a channel dedicated to HBO shows and you can get them On Demand for free. They also carry the On Demand for the Space (Sci-Fi) channel here. So we get HBO bundled into the movie package, which was a total of $35 a month IIRC, but with 5 people in the house we do get through a lot of movies so it actually has good value for money, especially as they get most of the recent movies and the actual movie rental costs ~$5, it only takes 7 rentals a month to get your moneys worth.

I love how they compare YouTube 5,600 at 28 times Hulu size on the same graph. I like the economist but it seems to be going down hill lately.

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