March 13, 2008
Hulu tests viewers tolerance for ads
Hulu, like other online video companies, is testing viewers' tolerance for ads. The Washington Post reports.
"Hulu requires viewers to sit through two minutes of advertisements for a typical half-hour episode, or roughly 75 percent less commercial time than the typical prime-time TV show. Users of digital video recorders can skip commercials, but there's no fast-forwarding through Hulu.
... Hulu's advertising strategy is to be both targeted and minimal. Each show has a single sponsor - for instance Nissan is NBC's "sponsor for Heroes." It is experimenting with allowing users to choose which ads to view, and with showing movie trailers upfront in exchange for shows without commercial breaks.
Allowing users to chose ads is innovative, some analysts said.
"It's one of the more aggressive moves we've seen," said Bobby Tulsiani, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "It's much more targeted than what you see on TV, where its hard to say if an ad actually got watched."
While Hulu keeps track of what users watch, it does not yet target ads based on their TV-viewing preferences. But the company said it is investing in more sophisticated technology to target ads based on viewers' habits. "
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