Hulu Wins – Who Loses?

Mashable reporting that Disney has signed on to put its shows on hulu.com by buying a stake in the online video site. That means all networks except for CBS are now on Hulu, and really who cares, except for How I Met Your Mother and the Charlie Sheen show.

But even more interesting is what Hulu is doing to TV.  It use to be only people with Tivo had the power of not being confined to a TV schedule.  Now when I miss The Office, I don’t blink.  I don’t get angry, I don’t even get shaky.  I just catch it on Hulu the next evening.  Easy.

Prediction: Hulu will get stronger, start making DVR services obsolete – especially once it goes mobile.

The second loser as Ostrow points out is YouTube.  Even with its effort to sign content deals it still can’t muster a significant threat to hulu.  In fact, in a “if you can’t beat them, join them” mindset YouTube actually links videos from Hulu inside its search results – taking you away from YouTube and on to hulu.com

I always had the opinion that YouTube’s audience was only indicative of the content found on the site.  So you want dogs riding skateboards or skaters falling on the ground, then you’ll have people who care about that on the site.  The problem, the mind-numbing content out weighs the entertainment/intellectual content.  Now, I’m not saying Family Guy or SNL skits are intellectual, but it’s a different demographic. A demographic that will click on another show laced with advertising, not just another video of a dog dancing, with no advertising.  And, it’s a well known fact that Hulu has some pretty cool commercials.

He who has the most eyeballs wins. He who has the most money wins.  They are both true.  Although, YouTube is losing lots of money each day.

Maybe this is how traditional media makes it’s stand against the new media push. This supports my idea that the social networks, social media are just additional channels, not anything mystical.  Place the shows people like on another channel and increase the value of the program through eyeballs, not commercials or timeslots.

Hulu is taking away the power of timeslots.  NBC owned Thursday night for years. Cosby, Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld.  Now, it doesn’t matter.  I watch all my favorite shows on Friday and Saturday night.  Sweeps? Who cares. I’ll watch your show on my time, not primetime.