Sunday, December 14, 2008

Hulu and YouTube

Some amazing stats came out last week. During October, YouTube, in the US alone, reached just over 100M uniques. So as much as 50% of the US online population watched a YouTube video. That is some serious big reach. 

Perhaps more amazing is how little money Google is not making at the same time. Compare that with the incredible growth of Hulu. It achieved 24M uniques in October from a site less than a year old. And Hulu is making money, built off the quality content it controls. 

It is no surprise that the high quality product on Hulu attracts blue-chip clients. It does raise the interesting question if Hulu could ever break a show? I know Hulu has carried some season premieres, but always prior to a network transmission. Could the next NBC hit come from Hulu? I think it could happen. People trust the content on Hulu, so if the site made a push for a new, exclusive show, why wouldn't people check it out?

The worry for networks has always been how will people discover new content at its start in the face of declining ratings? This could be one solution.