Free Content Streaming Grows More Popular
Immense growth in usage of free content streaming site
Hulu, as well as the continuing popularity of free content streaming site
YouTube, presents potential competition to pay-for-streaming services offered by retailers such as Netflix, Amazon and Blockbuster.
As reported by
Marketing Vox,
Nielsen Online data [pdf] indicates that Hulu has increased total year-over-year streams by 490%. In April 2008, Hulu had 63.2 million streams, compared to 373.3 million streams in April 2009. This places Hulu at number two among U.S. video web brands, and the fastest-growing brand in the top 10. YouTube comfortably maintained the top spot in April 2009 with 5.5 billion streams.
Hulu’s growth has been driven by users ages 35-49, according to Nielsen analysis. Time spent viewing among this age group grew 29% in the past six months, and unique viewers between 35 and 49 represented 30% of Hulu’s total viewership in April.
Hulu, which offers full-length, ad-supported streaming video of TV episodes and movies, is a more direct competitive threat to content streaming retailers than YouTube, which offers video snippets of up to 10 minutes in length and restricts the posting of copyrighted material. Hulu provides video in flash format and also offers some content in HD format. In addition to viewing Hulu online, users can view it on TV with MediaMall PlayOn software and playing device such as Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 console.
Top Streaming Video
However, unlike paid streaming content from retailers, Hulu’s content is only available for viewing, rather than download. In addition, Hulu’s movie catalog is relatively small, with about 500 films, and free Hulu content includes ads, unlike paid content.
Last month, Amazon added
paid direct streaming of HD TV shows and movies through its Amazon Video On Demand service. In addition, Blockbuster
is partnering with TiVo to make 10,000 film titles available for download by TiVo users. Netflix, which has publicly
announced intentions to focus on its streaming service, offers downloads of movies and TV shows through HD devices including Xbox 360 gaming consoles, LG Blu-ray players, and HD TiVo models. Netflix charges customers monthly access fees rather than fees per title and only offers content for rental.
Hulu is a joint venture of NBC Universal, Fox Entertainment Group, ABC, Inc., and Providence Equity Partners.
