Yahoo submits bid for Hulu • Hacker News Board

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#101

Post by redler » Sat, May 25, 2013, 1:22 AM UTC

tomkarlo wrote: post #43

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…

Except Hulu doesn't have much inventory, at least on an exclusive basis. It has eyeballs and distribution. The assets belong to the studios and networks. A roll-up is not exactly a new strategy, especially in media. You attempt to build economies of scale by amassing audience and distribution. Historically, however, the prices you pay (especially once folks figure out what you're doing) often prove to be inflated lat…

As an acquisition, Hulu is essentially a bag of content contracts with expiration dates. The infrastructure has value, but it's probably incidental to an acquirer like Yahoo. The challenge is to turn that bag into a property with lasting value; Yahoo is in a much better position to multiply that value than the group of current owners whose half-hearted "coopetition" has resulted in the fickle and watered-down service we currently enjoy.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#102

Post by salimmadjd » Sat, May 25, 2013, 1:27 AM UTC

samfisher83 wrote: post #59

salimmadjd wrote: post #49

Looks like Marisa is following the Google recipe. Blogs, Videos, Photos (improving flickr), now they just need a real mobile product and a social network.

60% of google's revenue comes from search. You can't be google without the golden hen and yahoo doesn't have search.

Content discovery is moving away from search. If anyone would know that it would be Marisa. Perhaps she is positioning the company for 2-3 years down the road. Which means she needs more social component to yahoo beyond tumblr.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#103

Post by Steko » Sat, May 25, 2013, 1:32 AM UTC

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.

Honestly they should just add another tier with no ads.

$8: Hulu with x ads per show.

$9: Hulu ad free.

There was a True Blood/Apple image series atop reddit not too long ago but Googling reveals that HBO insists that they don't raise money for product placement but allow writers to use products so score one for HBO.

Humorously, Apple claims they don't pay for product placement but they do give devices away which is supposed to be different I guess.

Netflix ran into problems with Lillehammer due to Norwegian law against paid placement.

House of Cards with non-paid for Apple advert below:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1537771

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#104

Post by SoftwareMaven » Sat, May 25, 2013, 1:49 AM UTC

JoshGlazebrook wrote: post #93

samstave wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had a Hulu account for the last two years. I recently canceled it. Their content is actually not that good, and on top of it, you're forced to watch commercials as well. The service was terrible.

That never really made sense to me either. If you're going to pay for hulu, you would expect to not have to sit through the commercials.

The commercials is the reason I've never bothered with a Hulu sub. I pay on iTunes and Netflix so I don't have to deal with those.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#105

Post by Steko » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:01 AM UTC

Steko wrote: post #103

w1ntermute wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Honestly they should just add another tier with no ads. $8: Hulu with x ads per show. $9: Hulu ad free. There was a True Blood/Apple image series atop reddit not too long ago but Googling reveals that HBO insists that they don't raise money for product placement but allow writers to use products so score one for HBO. Humorously, Apple claims they don't pay for product placement but they do give devices away which is…

Just to go further into the numbers Hulu makes quite a bit from the ads. Link [1] is from Feb 2011 when Hulu was making 14.3 cents per episode.

That means if you were watching 2 episodes a day Hulu was making more from you in a month from ads then from the Hulu Plus subscription. And I think ads have noticeably increased since 2011. I guess we know why that autoplay next episode kicks in so fast. And I guess it goes to the true cost of these licensing deals and why Netflix has a much worse tv selection that's a year old.

[1] http://www.wirelessgoodness.com/2011/02/04/hulu-generates-0-...

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#106

Post by Cushman » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:12 AM UTC

Steko wrote: post #105

Steko wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly they should just add another tier with no ads. $8: Hulu with x ads per show. $9: Hulu ad free. There was a True Blood/Apple image series atop reddit not too long ago but Googling reveals that HBO insists that they don't raise money for product placement but allow writers to use products so score one for HBO. Humorously, Apple claims they don't pay for product placement but they do give devices away which is…

Just to go further into the numbers Hulu makes quite a bit from the ads. Link [1] is from Feb 2011 when Hulu was making 14.3 cents per episode. That means if you were watching 2 episodes a day Hulu was making more from you in a month from ads then from the Hulu Plus subscription. And I think ads have noticeably increased since 2011. I guess we know why that autoplay next episode kicks in so fast. And I guess it goes…

Huh... I wonder how much they make when I watch 30 seconds of Colbert and close the window.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#107

Post by Moto7451 » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:33 AM UTC

samstave wrote: post #81

Retric wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all about licencing. "In 2011, Hulu’s owners put the company up for sale and were looking for a bid of at least $2 billion; in exchange, they would offer content licenses that would run for two to three years." "Last month, former News Corp. COO Peter Chernin submitted a starting bid of $500 million, with the understanding that he would be willing to pay more for extended licenses." Basically, a huge chunk of Hu…

I have had a Hulu account for the last two years. I recently canceled it. Their content is actually not that good, and on top of it, you're forced to watch commercials as well. The service was terrible.

I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much.

Most of their half hour (21 minute) shows only contain at most three minutes of commercials spread through the show. At worse you're sitting through a minute break from the show.

People pay $100+ per month and seem to live through tens of minutes of commercials per show.

Plus is about having device and HD access more than anything. I like it as I get far more content from it than I can over the air and I refuse to pay $60-100/month for cable/satellite.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#108

Post by glhaynes » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:42 AM UTC

espadagroup wrote: post #97

glhaynes wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sitting through the same 4 advertisements over-and-over-and-over again for What is it I don't understand about the online video business that causes this to happen? They can't get enough advertisements from their partners to allow them to be less repetitive? Advertisers don't want to provide variety? (Maybe advertisers specifically want the monotony? Surely not, else they'd follow the same scheme on network TV.) The…

Hulu's CPM's are incredibly high, on par with prime time TV. Not that many companies advertise on TV at those rates; even fewer do so online.

Huh. OK, then it surprises me that they charge so much. I guess they're selling their ad space, though? (Hence it being sensible for them to charge such a high CPM rate.)

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#109

Post by Supermighty » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:43 AM UTC

Moto7451 wrote: post #107

samstave wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had a Hulu account for the last two years. I recently canceled it. Their content is actually not that good, and on top of it, you're forced to watch commercials as well. The service was terrible.

I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Most of their half hour (21 minute) shows only contain at most three minutes of commercials spread through the show. At worse you're sitting through a minute break from the show. People pay $100+ per month and seem to live through tens of minutes of commercials per show. Plus is about having device and HD access more than anything. I like it as I get f…

Commercials break the flow of the TV/movie that I'm watching. It's the same reason I don't watch the networks or cable TV. It's a Netflix life for me.

Re: Yahoo submits bid for Hulu

#110

Post by Supermighty » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:45 AM UTC

meepmorp wrote: post #96

JoshGlazebrook wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That never really made sense to me either. If you're going to pay for hulu, you would expect to not have to sit through the commercials.

> That never really made sense to me either. It makes perfect sense. Money from subscriptions is good; extra money from ads is better. And as much as you or I dislike it, we're probably in a minority position here - if it was really cutting into earnings, they'd have cut it out by now.

Hulu having ads isn't about the money they make. It's about keeping ads as normal in peoples minds. If Netflix and Hulu and any other online only vod dropped all ads then people might start to resent ads, and seem them as abnormal. Then people will watch less network and cable TV, which need ads.