Hulu will never go international…
… unless they find a way to monetize it. And advertisement isn’t it.
PS: Want to skip the argument and go straight to my point? Jump here!
The Setting
Hulu is an awesome *free* TV viewing online service. It allows you to catch up on the last 5 episodes of most TV shows, some movies and plenty of clips extracted from past shows. It’s free, supported by short, in-place advertisement. Unlike the old TV paradigm, some of these ads are interactive or at least give you options so they can be more targeted/relevant to you.
Sounds awesome, right? Well, it’s only available if you’re accessing from within the US. But, but… aren’t these TV shows dow^H^H^H watched internationally? Yes, they are. So why just the US? Well, that’s my point. :)
Revenue Model
TV shows are said to survive from advertisement revenue: popular show = expensive ad slots = profit. Some TV networks have been publishing their shows on their websites. Again, US only. [1] One of the more popular TV shows of recent times [2] is viewed overseas just as much (or more) as in the US. Because some countries delay the showings so much (translations, bureaucracy, etc…) lots of people just end up resorting to the internet and download top quality (HD even) captures for free.
Apparently in 2006, [3] Disney wanted to make Lost available free for streaming, with ads, on ABC’s website. The result? Network affiliates went bonkers, afraid they’d be cut out of the advertisement revenue.
Bottom line: advertisement as revenue model is dead in our modern, high-tech, borderless culture.
International Rights
I won’t risk going into numbers here, but I’m pretty sure a pretty fat and steady income stream for studios is coming from international royalties. TV networks from all over the world are piggybacking on the international success (read: internet downloads) of some TV shows and paying millions to show them and lure their viewers. This model seems to be on the rise. A few years back, a popular US TV show could take months (years?) to get to national networks overseas. Now, they can come within a week of the US showing, including subtitles (where needed) and/or dubbing (ugh!). I couldn’t find any info on how much money is being generated through this but I bet it’s a *lot* (going by the amount of advertisement some of these shows are getting from local networks).
The ironic thing is that these shows are getting popular internationally because all the *free* downloading. Most people would not pay to watch them and would not know about them in the first place if it weren’t for the internet. I could argue on how cable networks are the ones paying for the shows, and how they’re getting money straight from viewers (aka subscription) but I won’t. I won’t because even though we have cable at home, I barely watch any TV shows on TV: they’re never on time, they’re at awkward times, etc… From my personal experience, TV has been for sports and news, and I know this is a generational thing and many more from my generation feel the same way.
Hulu
Hulu is living off the good graces of the studios. They’ve always been between a rock and a hard place. They can’t upfront the networks or they’ll lose their shows. They can’t allow international viewers because it’d screw the networks largest revenue stream. I have serious doubts their ad revenue would be enough to pay off “real” royalties charged by the studios. The studios see Hulu as advertisement *itself*. That’s why you’re only allow to watch the last 5 shows: they wouldn’t want to screw with their other good revenue source (DVD/Bluray sales).
Download, please!
So, if you live outside the US, here’s my (very politically incorrect) advice: download the shows off the internet. Go for the 720p version (HD) which isn’t even available for streaming anywhere. Until studios wake up and allow people to stream HD for free they won’t get my money. I’ll buy the box set of some of my favorite TV shows, but I’ll only do that now that Bluray has been out and offers me HD (versus the “crappy” DVD quality). [4]
The fact that viewers in the US can watch their shows for free both on TV (HD) and stream high quality versions of it and international users cannot is border-line xenophobic. They’re making money off of your downloads anyway, as the show gets international acclaim and royalties go up. Then if you don’t watch them on TV in your country, networks will stop buying the shows. And *that*, my friends, will force US studios to get on with the game and move on from their current revenue models and find much better ways of understanding viewer interest than “TV ratings”.
Want a recommendation? If you’re on a Mac (you should, anyway), get this app that automatically downloads the latest torrent for your favorite TV shows as they’re published (or visit my favorite website for that) and use Transmission to auto-load the .torrent files from the folder to which you told TVshows to download the torrents.
If you really liked the show, go buy a Bluray (or DVD, if you must! *ugh*) and you’ve done your share of “saving the show”.
There. I’ve done my share of contributing back to the internet. Have a great weekend. :)
Notes
- In the UK, BBC has their BBC iPlayer… UK-only. [back to article]
- And by that I don’t mean *best* show on TV! Not my job to decide that… even though I’m a huge fan! ;) [back to article]
- Source: Wikipedia [back to article]
- Who would’ve guessed 10 years ago I’d consider DVD quality as “crappy”? :) [back to article]
