Posts Tagged ‘YouTube’

Hulu Prepares Public Option

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Hulu plans to introduce an initial public offering as early as this fall.

  • Although Hulu gets a lot of traffic, it has had difficulty turning its popularity into profit. It hopes to change things by making an initial public offering.
  • An IPO could have the additional benefits of increasing confidence in the company, possibly luring back content producers like Viacom, which recently removed popular shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from Hulu.
  • However, with many other companies poised to go public and a lack of confidence in IPOs in general, going public may not solve Hulu’s problems.

Facts & Figures

  • The planned IPO could value the company at more than $2 billion.
  • Hulu reported that it made $100 million last year, but it is also on track to make that amount again in the first half of this year.
  • Hulu produced more than $566 million ads this past June – more than double YouTube’s amount.

The Growing Market For Online Shows

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Although the market for internet shows declined during the recession, it is now attracting increasing amounts of sponsorship and advertising.

  • Interest in Web-based shows has waxed and waned in recent years, but it’s now on the rise again. As people continue to spend more time online, traffic for these types of shows is expected to increase.
  • The new faith in these programs comes from the realization that online shows won’t replace TV shows anytime in the near future, but they can provide an alternative viewing experience with different standards.
  • Many funding deals for these shows come from increasingly popular branded entertainment deals, where a company sponsors a show in return for having its brand somehow incorporated into the show itself.

Facts & Figures

  • An estimated 86% of users in the United States watch at least one online video per month.
  • Last month, YouTube put up $5 million in grants for online producers.
  • Commercials for professionally-produced internet shows cost $15-$35 per thousand views; banner ads cost $5-$15 per thousand views.

Best Quote

“I often think of my daily business life as a guy running a cable network in the early 1980s. There is, no matter how you slice it, a timeline for any new industry to grow.” –Rob Barnett, Chief Executive, My Damn Channel