YouTube to battle Hulu

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YouTube, which has gained popularity by allowing users to share their short video creations, has garnered a user base of roughly eighty-million. Hulu, another on-line video service has only a fraction of the users which YouTube boasts, yet was able to generate more revenue than its competitor in the previous year. Why is this so? One reason, feature films.

Hulu, a joint venture by NBC Studios and News Corp, has one major difference from YouTube. Where YouTubers have access to a large repository of user-uploaded and created content, Hulus possess access to full length television shows. It would seem that advertisers are far more comfortable with television shows and feature length movies than they are with peer created home movie-esque films.

Google, the company which owns YouTube, has stated publicly that YouTube as a revenue generating model in its current form is not as efficient as some competitors. It seemed that it was only a matter of time before the Internet behemoth made the move towards full length features.

Canadian film company, Lionsgate, has agreed to give YouTubers access to short excerpts from films. However, Google remains in talks to attempt to acquire ad-supported full length features for its users.

Hulu may have the upper hand at the current moment, but if YouTube is able to acquire such content and present it to what is a far larger audience than that of Hulu, Google may see revenues soar and users rejoice.

The most optimistic of claims suggest that such programming may be available on YouTube within the next couple of months.

#1 Doli on 09 Nov 2008 - 16:56

I guess YouTube got tired of seeing videos from Hulu (You can see the Hulu intro) on their site also.

(6 replies) #2 The Tjalian on 09 Nov 2008 - 18:40

Funnily enough, I found out about Hulu on Youtube. Of course, then I got bombarded with "You are not from the United States, so you cannot watch this video" at which point I let out a bunch of curse words and went straight back to youtube, where I will most likely stay. It only has a tenth of Youtube's users because it has those ridiculous liscencing restrictions, and well, the US isn't the only country on the planet.

I'd be fine to watch a couple of advertisements to get some shows for free, that's for sure. I mean, I've been watching advertisements on VHS, DVD and Cinema all my life, so having to watch a couple of ads before a movie or a show for free would be totally fine by me.

Although, it must be a little worrying for indie directors who are now going to feel the burn when the majority of Youtube users will watch these shows instead of their own. I mean, the whole point of Youtube was to give the indie director the chance to make his name heard, and now... this won't be the case again? I can't blame Youtube, I mean, online video facilities were eventually going to go this way, and to be honest, I'm surprised Youtube wasn't the first to do so. It's just a way of the times.

#2.1 akav0id on 09 Nov 2008 - 19:26

Youtube also has the regional restrictions that Hulu/Pandora/BBC iplayer and the like have on some videos, pretty easy to circumvent though.

Some people just don't get the concept of the "world" wide web

#2.2 +Xerxes on 09 Nov 2008 - 22:36

akav0id said,

and some people don't understand the concept of "copyright"

Why do you think there isn't an iTunes store for every country in the world? or why most of the video content on the Xbox Live Marketplace is North America only? you need to negotiate a licensing agreement from the copyright owners from each of the countries you want to distribute the content too, it's not enough to get permission from the content creator, as that only give you permission to release it in their country. It's all great and all to preach that it's the "world wide" web, but the reality is it isn't (well not when copyright is concerned at least).

#2.3 +Xerxes on 09 Nov 2008 - 22:36

#2.4 +Xerxes on 09 Nov 2008 - 22:36

#2.5 +Xerxes on 09 Nov 2008 - 22:36

Holy quad post, batman! sorry about that, it went all weird on me when I clicked submit and it posted the same thing 4 times! :|

Last edited by Xerxes on 09 Nov 2008 - 22:41

#2.6 C_Guy on 12 Nov 2008 - 16:50

"Some people just don't get the concept of the "world" wide web"

Yeah, if you're talking about Hulu. They don't seem to grasp that the world consists of more than the USA. Maybe one day they will allow visitors from outside one single country to use their site. One day. Maybe.

#3 XeonBuilder on 09 Nov 2008 - 18:50

I actually like watching shows on hulu that missed. The quality is great and they dont kill you with a shitload of ads.

(5 replies) #4 kaiwai on 09 Nov 2008 - 20:26

What ****es me off about YouTube is the 10 minute limit on videos; come on, we're not all people trying to upload full length movies - some of us actually want to create content that actually lasts longer than 10 minutes! The day that a YouTube replacement offers a facility where by one can earn a 'reputation' for not uploading pirated content - one should have the time limit removed.

#4.1 chooser on 10 Nov 2008 - 00:36

I've seen videos nearly an hour long. Which youtube are you on?

#4.2 kaiwai on 10 Nov 2008 - 01:22

chooser said,

*smashes chooser with a chair* Please dear god - do you know anything about YouTube? you *DO* realise that after they instituted the 10 minute limit that those users who were members before the 10 minute limit retained their ability to upload larger files - you realise that?

Please, don't open your mouth unless you know what the hell you're talking about.

#4.3 petroid on 10 Nov 2008 - 01:42

kaiwai said,

Or you could apply to become a YouTube director...

#4.4 kaiwai on 10 Nov 2008 - 08:51

petroid said,

Which is bloody useless; the page has broken links all over it. Damn Youtube is a piece of crap.

#4.5 The Tjalian on 10 Nov 2008 - 23:20

Holy ****, no need to rage so much man. Considering you didn't exactly make it clear you knew this in the first place yourself, don't go biting someone's head off when he goes to correct you.

#5 Izlude on 10 Nov 2008 - 04:40

if they don't delete dr rabbit videos, hulu would be the choice.

#6 seebaran on 10 Nov 2008 - 15:30

Good for YouTube. Hopefully a better UI will come with it. Has anyone seen MTVMusic.com? It looks like MTV is hopping on the Hulu trail also. It's very much like Hulu.

On a similiar note, I'd like to see Verizon Wireless and Viacom give Hulu some competition by re-launching vCast together as an online video hub. I believe MTV owns half of Rhapsody, which already is partnered with vCast, but if their parent company Viacom put their hand in the pot, all their television properties (MTV, VH1, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, CBS, CW, Logo, Nick, etc) could be made available via a Hulu-like site and subsequently sell-in mobile downloads, something YouTube or Hulu does not offer.

#7 tablet_user on 07 May 2009 - 20:21

theres always ways around restrictions. I live in canada and i use Hulu everytime i miss a tv show and dont want to download it.

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