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Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

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Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#161

Post by DanBC »

AlexDanger wrote: post #160
VMG wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if you hadn't seen the commercial, what else would be playing in your head? Mozart?

Perhaps not Mozart, but anything is better than a fucking jingle. I havent seen a TV commercial in years. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by information. Some of it stick to your brain whether you like it or not. Presumably the brain has a finite amount of bandwidth for processing/retaining incoming information. With that in mind, I'll do my best to avoid commercials so something from the 'useful…

They've tried ads in books. (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/the-secret-hist...)

I wish there were no ads in the middle of a programme. I hate it. We live in a world of "director's cuts", so I'm surprised we still get weird stupid ads throughout a movie.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#162

Post by johneth »

_b8r0 wrote: post #86

I think this is a smart buy. Buying netflix would be stupidly expensive, but buying Hulu and changing it to out-netflix netflix could be a really good play to pick up a platform fairly cheaply and run with it. The question is whether or not Yahoo! has the dynamism to do that, and I'm not sure anyone other than Marissa Mayer has the answer, if her. Here in the UK, iPlayer dominates the online market. If she can come w…

The UK market is probably one of the most 'advanced' in terms of online viewing of TV and movies (thanks in large part to the popularity of the iPlayer).

There's a mix of things; multi-platform free VoD (iPlayer, 4oD, ITV), multi-platform subscription VoD (Netflix, Blinkbox, Lovefilm), subscription live stuff (Sky).

I would credit the BBC with spurring on this competition - they've expanded the mindshare for these kind of products with everyday people probably more than any other company. They're not really competing with the other players in the UK, though.

A new player would be competing with the likes of Sky (who own the rights to a load of premium stuff, which wouldn't be up for grabs for a long time, and when it is, would be fought for). Netflix has this problem right now with movie and TV rights.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#163

Post by androidb »

I hope they buy it and open it for international users as well, it's a pity right now it only works in the US and you have to resort to tricks to access it from outside the US (for those interested here's a chrome add-on that lets you access it from outside the US - 'Media Hint').

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#164

Post by mkr-hn »

w1ntermute wrote: post #100
Steko wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well most people pay for basic cable and most of those channels have ads. Granted HBO and Netflix don't have commercials but I think they also both use product placement ( edit: see granddaughter comment for more info ) in their original content so it's not like there's some philosophical commitment they've made to not show subscribers ads to pad the bottom line.

I'd rather have (tastefully done) product placement than ads. And I could never notice any product placement in House of Cards or Game of Thrones.

I saw it in House of Cards. You just might not notice it if you already had the products shown. It wouldn't seem unusual to you. I don't know about Game of Thrones, but I would guess some manufacturers of sharp objects, alcohol, and clothes were subtly inserted. Maybe some beer company ran an "as seen on Game of Thrones" ad.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#165

Post by vidarh »

untog wrote: post #48
marcamillion wrote: post #32

Wow....I feel like I am watching a brilliant game of chess. Marissa Mayer is increasingly showing her genius. It is clear that she understands that Yahoo is a New Media company. They serve assets to many eyeballs and monetize those assets. It seems that in her case, their main goal is grab up as much quality inventory as she can, and monetize the hell out of it. As their media inventory gets bigger, economies of scal…

Is "buy lots of big properties so you can advertise across all of them" really CEO genius ? It's something that Yahoo was doing for years before Meyer even came on board- they bought Flickr and Delicious, and tried to buy Facebook. Granted, none of those were hugely successful, but we're still yet to see whether Tumblr and (maybe) Hulu will be. I'm not sure that buying Hulu is such a slam-dunk, anyway. They are entir…

I worked at Yahoo 2003-2005, and already then the split between the "Yahoo is a technology company" crowd - exemplified by those who still wanted Yahoo to try to compete on search technology - and the "Yahoo is a media company" crowd was rapidly being won by the media company crowd.

I was in London, and I don't know much about how this played out in Sunnyvale, but apart from some occasional attempts at convincing people otherwise (like the acquisition of WhereOnEarth that was widely "advertised" across the company) on our end at least "everyone" apart from some pockets of engineering appeared to understand very clearly that Yahoo was a media company where growing pageviews to monetize them with ads was the core of the company.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#166

Post by Supermighty »

zwily wrote: post #154
trhtrsh wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of Netflix doesn't have ads.

Are there any ads on Netflix? I can't think of any.

There are not ads on Netflix. I wasn't being clear enough. I meant that if there are video on demand services like Netflix without ads then people will see ads as a discomfort in vod services with ads, like Hulu.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#167

Post by veidr »

VMG wrote: post #146
veidr wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the obvious "I don't want to watch fucking random useless shit in the middle of something I am enjoying," there is another reason: commercials create mental pollution that in some cases never goes away. For instance, I still have the jingle of this horrid local low-budget commercial from KFTY TV 50 (UHF broadcasting out of Santa Rosa, CA) in my brain: "♫ Auto body masters... EuroCal ... ♫ Auto body masters..…

So if you hadn't seen the commercial, what else would be playing in your head? Mozart?

No, probably Metallica's Seek & Destroy.

Which, while not in heavy rotation on my current playlists, would still be a big upgrade.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#168

Post by VMG »

AlexDanger wrote: post #160
VMG wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if you hadn't seen the commercial, what else would be playing in your head? Mozart?

Perhaps not Mozart, but anything is better than a fucking jingle. I havent seen a TV commercial in years. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by information. Some of it stick to your brain whether you like it or not. Presumably the brain has a finite amount of bandwidth for processing/retaining incoming information. With that in mind, I'll do my best to avoid commercials so something from the 'useful…

When I watch TV, adverts fascinate me as a study of society. I'll admit that the enjoyment drops off after the first time though.

But are TV adverts really more "mentally polluting" than a 80s song or a limerick you picked up at a schoolyard? Relax everybody.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#169

Post by Retric »

DanBC wrote: post #158
johneth wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's product placement in some programmes, for example the Netflix-produced House of Cards contains jarring product placement for the Playstation Vita.

That was surprising and disappointing. I guess they need product placement, but some of the Playstation stuff was a bit heavy handed and ham fisted.

There is a lot of product placement in most TV shows this was just poorly done. If someone says a brand name or you see a logo long enough to read it than chances are that's product placement. EX: Someone's drinking a beer/soda I'd you see the label it's deliberate.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#170

Post by spullara »

trhtrsh wrote: post #132
mortenjorck wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a tangent, that ad was such a terrible missed opportunity. Here you have scored this exclusive deal with this impossible international crossover genius comedic rapper, and you sell a pretty delicious product, and all you can think of is a 1950s-style cutesy celebrity endorsement format. Ending with a very pre-Don-Draper, wink-and-a-fake-smile, generic-celebrity-worshipping closer "If Psy does it, we all go nuts."…

....and you just said the manufacturer's name on a unrelated forum, so their ad campaign was a success.

Funny, i'd seen that ad a dozen times and up until now i had no idea who made the ad.
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