

Hulu - Online video's new model - amrithk
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13059735

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mdasen
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?

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wastedbrains
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

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zach
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.

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vyrotek
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.

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

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

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electromagnetic
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.

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unalone
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?

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electromagnetic
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.

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Retric
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.

