Hulu is rising once again after having what can only be described as a lull in its incredible growth. Thanks mainly to a new season of TV programming and the addition of ABC content, the U.S. TV catch-up service is growing. Let’s just hope the new embed policy doesn’t hinder that growth.
Hulu On The Up
According to AdAge, Hulu is growing once again after experiencing a few months of static or even negative growth. Figures from the comScore Video Metrix suggest Hulu grew almost 47 percent from September to October.
Over the last month Hulu has served an estimated 856 million video streams, up from the 583 million streamed during September. Unique visitors also rose, up 10 percent from 38.7 million to 42.5 million.
This represents an even bigger jump in viewing figures than that experienced after the Super Bowl ads in February which prompted a 33 percent rise.
New Fall TV Season
The main explanations given for this rise in viewer and streaming numbers are October being the first full month of the new Fall TV season and the first full month of ABC content including Lost and Desperate Housewives entering the Hulu library. The latter is as a result of Disney taking a stake in the company.
Interestingly, this suggests that online TV is still indebted to traditional TV. It isn’t the archive content such as The A-Team, The Lone Ranger, or Airwolf that is turning on viewers but the chance to watch missed episodes of new hit shows.
The renewed interest in Hulu means the company has almost sold all its advertising capacity for the rest of the year. Which is, unfortunately, leading to some urging Hulu to up its advertising slots to better match those present in traditional TV.
Embed Policy
While this is all good news for Hulu, its new embed policy seems to be overly harsh on startups. As reported by NewTeeVee, new video discovery site Rippol was recently forced by Hulu to stop embedding all of its shows. And Yidio and CastTV have reported similar demands from Hulu.
While its possibly understandable for Hulu to try and protect its content from being embedded wholesale on other sites, this does seem to be a distinct change of policy. The sad thing is that the only likely effect will be a negative one on traffic.
