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Company Background
Hulu's Business Model
Hulu's Relationship with NBCUniversal, FOX and ABC
Hulu Competitors
Future Roadmap
Hulu Videos
Closed Captioning
Advertising
Distribution
Technology
Piracy
Hulu Plus
There’s no definition of the word "Hulu" in the English language, but the inherently fun name captures the spirit of the service we're building. When the name Hulu was first considered, it was discussed in the context of its Chinese translation (as several Hulu employees are of Chinese descent).
Two interesting translations of "hulu" in Mandarin:Our hope is that "Hulu," as an empty vessel, will come to embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world's premium content when, where and how you want it.
NBCUniversal, News Corporation and The Walt Disney Company share in the ownership stake of Hulu (along with our private equity investor, Providence Equity Partners). In addition, News Corporation and The Walt Disney Company currently hold seats on Hulu’s board of directors. As content providers, NBCUniversal, News Corporation and The Walt Disney Company bring shows, movies and clips to the Hulu video library. Although Comcast recently acquired NBCUniversal, Hulu users will continue to enjoy the same NBCUniversal TV shows that they have come to expect from the Hulu service, when, where and how they want them.
Learn more about Hulu’s executive team here: www.hulu.com/about/executive_team.
Currently, Hulu employs nearly 300 people worldwide. Hulu’s team has been custom built for its mission: the creation of a high-quality online video service that users, content partners and advertisers unabashedly love. If you are interested in learning more about available jobs at Hulu, please visit our jobs page.
Hulu currently has offices Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Tokyo and Beijing. Hulu’s headquarters are in Los Angeles, California.
Announced in October 2007, Providence Equity Partners, the leading global private equity firm specializing in media, entertainment, communications and information companies invested $100 million in Hulu. Providence also has representation on Hulu’s board of directors.
Hulu officially opened its doors to the public on March 12, 2008. Prior to the company’s launch, Hulu spent nearly six months in private beta receiving critical feedback from select users.
Hulu’s mission is to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, where and how they want it. Our goal has always been to serve all of our customers, which include users, content providers and advertisers, with a high-quality online video experience built around premium content.
Hulu Plus is a subscription service that generates one revenue stream from the subscription fee and the other from advertising.
Hulu has two different products. Hulu.com is a free online service for consumers that generates revenue from advertising sales. Ad revenue comes from the ad impressions generated from Hulu.com, from video streams, from our distribution partners’ websites and from the embeddable Hulu video player. Hulu Plus is an ad-supported subscription service which allows our customers to watch Hulu content in other devices beyond the PC, including Internet-connected TVs, gaming consoles, set-top boxes, mobile phones and tablets.
Currently, the majority of Hulu’s audience is evenly distributed between men and women in the 18-49 age range.
Hulu does not disclose the business or financial terms of any of its content agreements.
Hulu does not disclose the business or financial terms of any of its partnerships.
As a content aggregator, Hulu has assembled a vast library of premium, professionally produced videos that provide users with a broad experience from more than 260 content providers. While NBC.com, FOX.com and ABC.com have deep online experiences devoted to their own content, Hulu provides one place where users can easily find and discover their favorites across many content providers.
Hulu originated as a free, legal alternative to various piracy services that enable users to illegally access premium content for free without the permission of the content owner. In an age of many viable and alluring legal options for accessing content on demand over the Internet, Hulu seeks to be the premiere destination for premium content.
Our goal is to build a product and service that people want to use: a best–in-class experience for finding and enjoying the world’s premium content. Competitors who enter the market do not change or impact our mission which is to deliver the world’s premium content to users when, where and how they want it.
We recently announced that Hulu will enter Japan later this year. While we have every intention to make Hulu's growing content lineup available worldwide sometime in the future, we don't have a timetable or any news regarding expansion beyond Japan at this time. To enter international markets, Hulu must clear the rights for each show or film in each specific geographic region, which will take time. We're encouraged by how many content providers have already been working along these lines so that their programs can be available over the Internet to a much larger, global audience.
Our first priorities are to build a compelling service in the U.S and in Japan. In parallel, we are working with content partners to acquire distribution rights and licenses to bring the Hulu experience to users in additional markets globally.
No. Currently, Hulu is focused on offering ad-supported streaming videos for free through hulu.com and on the subscription service Hulu Plus. That said, we believe in listening closely to user feedback to help us determine our next investments in how to help people enjoy premium content online.
Ultimately, we think that users want to consume media on their terms. We strongly believe that media is an impulse business, so making online video easy to use and consume when, where and how people want is where we’re headed in the future.
Our goals are aligned with our users: We keep as many videos up on Hulu.com, Hulu Plus and through our partner distribution sites for as long as possible. However, content retention depends on several factors, including streaming clearances granted by our content providers. Hulu keeps videos up for as long as our contracts will allow. So far, many of our content partners have been very helpful and share our desire to provide choice and depth of videos on Hulu.
Streaming might vary on a show-by-show basis. There is not one specific reason why a video might expire off of the service. Streaming clearances can be determined by any number of legal or business agreements that differ from show to show. Music clearances, impending DVD sales and syndication sales are just a few reasons why an episode, entire season or movie may expire.
Generally speaking, we encourage the distribution of Hulu videos through embeds. However, we will evaluate usage of the Hulu player on a case-by-case basis.
Hulu is engaged in discussions with a variety of potential content providers and is always looking to expand its library in order to bring the best selection of content to our users. At Hulu, the user comes first, and ultimately our goal is to provide people with what they are looking for anytime, anywhere. Although we do not host CBS content on Hulu today, users can still find many of their favorite shows online through Hulu’s innovative search that provides results for Hulu.com as well as links to shows on other websites.
Hulu is focused on helping users find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, where and how they want it. Hulu focuses exclusively on providing users with a source for premium, professionally produced content.
If you have content that you would like to share with the Hulu audience, you can email content@hulu.com.
We continue to receive closed-captioning data for various shows and are working hard to add it to the service in a timely manner. The closed-captioning data used for broadcast TV isn't easily translated for online use so we're investigating alternative solutions to increase our selection of closed-captioning coverage.
Hulu’s top priority is to create a service that advertisers, content providers and users unabashedly love. Our strong user experience drives higher engagement which results in higher advertising effectiveness. Hulu strives to minimize clutter and maintain a strong relationship between the amount of advertising viewed and the amount of premium content consumed. Elegant companion banners are placed in close proximity to the player to further reinforce brand messaging.
Hulu is committed to the continual improvement of online ad effectiveness through innovating new and more interactive ad formats and models that advertisers want. We work very closely with advertisers to continually innovate, experiment and find the right marketing solutions for their brands.
At Hulu, the priority is to create a superior advertising environment with a high quality user experience, and to continuously improve viewing, participation and engagement through innovation. Advertisers benefit from Hulu’s environment, which is clean, simple and elegant, and has an audience that is engaged in the viewing experience. With Hulu’s substantial and growing audience, advertisers’ brands can reach consumers wherever they’re online, whether it’s on Hulu, through our distribution partners, on the millions of Hulu Plus enabled devices in market today or on the network of viral video players that have been embedded across the web.
Currently, Hulu offers three types of advertising formats, including standard ad formats, premium ad formats and Hulu exclusive formats.
Standard Ad Formats:Since publicly launching in March 2008, Hulu has continued to innovate and create various ad formats. Some of the most successful advertising formats include:
Hulu strives to build a great consumer experience and so far we’ve had the benefit of constructive user feedback to help guide us. Through this feedback, we’ve learned that our users prefer to have a different ad experience with long-form content than with short-form content. The length and placement of ad units vary based on the length of the content. Whether it’s a clip, full episode or movie, Hulu’s online ad experiences are customized to the particular length of each video.
For long-form videos (full episodes and movies), advertisements on Hulu appear during normal commercial breaks as seen on traditional broadcast television. Hulu also shows a limited number of display advertisements as companion banners to 15- and 30-second spots.
For short-form videos (clips), we show a variation of overlay ads, companion display banners and end-card advertisements.
To date, Hulu has been fortunate to work with a number of advertisers including brand names such as Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Visa, Pepsi, Nestle, Microsoft, GEICO, Target, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Purina, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, State Farm, Allstate, Unilever and Procter & Gamble.
Advertising on Hulu is currently sold on a CPM basis. Hulu cannot discuss the financial or contractual details of its advertiser relationships.
Hulu cannot disclose the financial details of our partnerships.
To date, the responses from advertisers have been extremely positive. At Hulu, one of our top priorities is to create an excellent ad environment by focusing on a high-quality user experience and to continuously improve viewing, participation and engagement through innovation. More than 625 advertisers on Hulu have benefited from an environment that is clean, simple and well-curated and an audience that is fully engaged in the viewing experience.
We do not disclose the business or financial terms of the advertising agreements.
Hulu’s approach has always been less is more. We believe, and research has proven, that fewer ads can lead to greater message recall which ultimately enables a better user experience on Hulu. That said, we’re always experimenting and finding new ways to optimize the ad experience on Hulu.
Ultimately, we think that users want to consume media on their terms. We strongly believe that media is an impulse business, so making online video easy-to-use and consume when, where and how people want is where we’re headed in the future.
To that point, Hulu wants to provide consumers with the ability to enjoy great content where they are already spending much of their time online. This entails being in the neighborhoods across the web like Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, TV Guide and IMDb. We are excited that our partners and their users will have access to Hulu videos in places they already are.
Hulu does not disclose the business or financial terms of any of its distribution agreements. If you are interested in distributing Hulu content please submit your contact information here.
Our goal is to partner with top entertainment and social networking sites where people are spending a good portion of their time online. We aspire to be in these types of neighborhoods across the web.
The free Hulu service is currently available on PCs. The Hulu Plus subscription service is available on PCs as well as select mobile phones, televisions (through gaming consoles and other boxes connected to the TV or directly through Internet-connected TVs), Blu-ray players and tablets. The free Hulu Plus applications from our partners can be downloaded from their respective app stores. For the latest device support information, please refer to www.hulu.com/plus.
Hulu has a team of engineers who develop the Hulu service and platform. All customer-facing services and features have been developed in-house to ensure that we have full control over the customer experience. Hulu has also built our entire back-end infrastructure in-house, including our content management system, transcoding farm, reporting service and advertising technology.
Hulu leverages several technology partners to help provide a high-quality and trusted service for our users. We partner with leading content delivery networks to provide a high quality video playback experience.
We continue to receive closed-captioning data for various shows and are working hard to add it to the service in a timely manner. The closed-captioning data used for broadcast TV isn't easily translated for online use so we're investigating alternative solutions to increase our selection of closed-captioned videos.
Hulu videos are streamed as Flash video files (FLV files). These files are encoded using the H.264 codec that is supported on Flash Player 10 and above (which is installed on more than 97% of computers in the U.S.).
Hulu currently supports dynamic bit rate streaming to create the best viewing experience on each device and platform. Our player chooses the optimal stream for each client based on the available bandwidth.
Hulu currently supports four different streams including 480kbps, 700kbps, 1,000kbps (an H.264 encode that is not on On2 VP6), 2.5Mbps and 3.2Mbps.
Hulu.com is a free and easy-to-use online video service that legally aggregates premium, professionally produced content. We’re focused on delivering a high-quality viewing experience that requires no downloads and is accessible when, where and how users want.
Hulu originated as a free, legal alternative to various piracy services that enable users to illegally access premium content for free without the permission of the content owner. In an age of many viable and alluring legal options for accessing content on demand over the Internet, Hulu seeks to be the premiere destination for premium content.
We are fortunate to have a very strong relationship with our content partners. This connection provides us with exclusive content that other competitors don’t have. For example, Hulu and the network sites are the only legal online destinations that provide access to current season TV shows from top networks like ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, NBCUniversal, MTV and many more.
Piracy is an industry wide problem. By building a compelling service for end users that is easy-to-use and free, we believe that Hulu is a great platform for content providers who want to legally monetize their content online.
Hulu Plus is the first ad-supported subscription service to bring current TV programs from top broadcast networks like ABC, BET, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC, MTV, VH1 and acclaimed films, in HD to computers, Internet-connected TVs, blu-ray players, set-top boxes, mobile phones and tablets. Go to www.hulu.com/plus for more information.
No. The free, ad-supported Hulu.com remains a profitable and successful part of Hulu's business. The ad-supported Hulu Plus subscription service is incremental and complementary to the free, ad-supported Hulu.com.
Hulu's mission has always been to bring users the world's premium content and a subscription model allows for an additional revenue stream to help unlock more content for viewers.
Hulu Plus is available for $7.99 per month. We are offering a 1-week free trial.
Hulu Plus is available on:
The free Hulu Plus applications from each partner can be downloaded from their respective app stores. For the latest device support information, please refer to www.hulu.com/plus.
Hulu will continue to evaluate opportunities to extend Hulu Plus to other hardware devices and platforms.
Hulu Plus will continue to add support of more devices over time. Hulu evaluates each device opportunity for its ability to offer a great customer experience for as many Hulu Plus users as possible.
For each device, Hulu is building custom interfaces best suited to the screen resolution and input methods. As a company, we continue to evaluate the opportunity to work with device partners and expect to grow the list of device partnerships over time.
We understand that the content difference can be confusing at times for our users, so we hope this explanation is helpful.
For background, when we launched the free Hulu.com service, we obtained licensing to stream content directly to the PC – and only to the PC. With the launch of the subscription-based Hulu Plus service, we had to start from scratch and acquire licensing to stream content on TVs, smartphones and tablets, as well as PCs. We tried to get as much overlap as possible (We want it all, of course!). But there are still some exceptions that we are working to resolve.
Today, Hulu Plus includes hundreds of shows, some of which haven't been available online before, and full runs of many of them. To see a full list please go to Hulu Plus Content page.
Still, we understand it's disappointing when you can't access some of your favorite shows on your favorite devices. Please know that we are working diligently to include as much content as possible in Hulu Plus so you can enjoy more of your favorite shows where and when you want, and we're confident the offering will improve over time.
Hulu's goal for this subscription product has always been to offer the largest content selection to users for the lowest price. By making Hulu Plus an ad-supported subscription service, we were able to offer the low price of $7.99 to subscribers for the deepest library of current TV programming online.
The ad experience for Hulu Plus will be very similar to the experience on the free version of Hulu. The ad experience for each device will be optimized for quality and effectiveness.
Hulu’s goal is to create the most effective advertising platform for marketers while maintaining an optimal user experience. When thinking about the overall advertising experience, we consider targeting, ad formats and ad load. Hulu will continue to experiment and innovate on all three aspects of the ad experience.
Hulu Plus enables Hulu, for the first time, to extend its innovative and targeted ad platform across four screens, reaching Internet-connected users wherever they are.
There are no current plans to tier the offerings on Hulu Plus.
No. Hulu Plus is currently a U.S. only service. As a company, we continue to explore options to expand abroad and have intentions of being an international service in the future.
We've always been very public about our intentions of being an international service, but do not have any details to share at this time.
