What Hulu doesn’t get

Hulu is one the best online video sites available in the United States. One of the weirdest things about the folks behind Hulu (NBC and News Corp.) is they seem to act in a way that counters their best interest. Put a show online? Take it down quickly! There’s software that lets people watch Hulu on televisions? We can’t have that!

Now why would Hulu act like this? You would think that more eyeballs watching shows on Hulu would be a good thing. Shouldn’t Hulu be on as many devices as possible? Let’s speculate on Hulu’s issue. Most everything comes down to money. If something is profitable, you can bet that everyone and their mother will try that something.

So where’s the money in Hulu? It has to be the advertising. The same as it is in the television business, the radio business, the magazine business, and so many others.

The people behind Hulu must want you to watch normal television over online television. It’s a pretty safe bet to imagine that they charge much more for television advertising than they do for online advertising.

Here’s the weirdness: if Hulu can show that they have millions and millions of people watching online, then they can raise their ad rates. By encouraging people to watch online, they will make more money.

To a lot of us, the technophiles, Hulu is pretty much television on demand. Having an online source for television means we don’t need to torrent anything or find multiple parts of a show on YouTube. Has anyone found a way to get around Hulu ads (apart from reloading the page until you get that big ad upfront)? I don’t think so. If anything, I think people remember the sponsors more on Hulu than they do on TV.

What will it take for Hulu to figure out the right thing to do? It took the television industry a while to get online, so let’s be patient with them.