Speaking at the OnScreen Media Summit, Chase Carey, News Corp.’s Deputy Chairman, said that the time is not far when Hulu, the video service founded by News Corp. and NBC Universal, will come up with a subscription service.
Carey was quoted as saying, “I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content.”
He further added, “I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with the notion that it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.”
However, Carey is still not sure about the exact time as to when Hulu would roll out its pay model. As per the reports coming in from Broadcasting & Cable, Carey believes that the step will be most likely taken in 2010. But no timeline has been decided as of now.
Earlier Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of News Corp., had also hinted at charging for content available at the online versions of many of his media properties, including The Wall Street Journal.
Pros and cons of the ad-supported model
While Hulu is trying to move away from the ad-supported model, interestingly, Sony Pictures Entertainment is cashing in on the ad-supported Crackle.
Sony Pictures does not have any competitors when it comes to online distribution of full-length feature films. It is currently the top studio distributing feature films online.
Sony Pictures re-launched Crackle in February, which was previously a user-generated video service. Since its re-launching, Crackle’s premium monthly streams have shot up to almost 10 million. Not only this, the time spent on Crackle has also increased a massive seven times during this period.
Therefore, despite the shift from ad-supported models by different video sites, it is still not all over for ad-supported movies and TV shows on the Internet as some companies are making a huge profit through it.
More on Hulu
Hulu is a very popular video site that offers full-length TV shows from NBC Universal, Twentieth Century Fox Film, and other top-notch entertainment companies. It is the first online ad-supported video service that is doing very well.
However, experts believe that Hulu might not be able to cope up with its revenue problems by charging for its online content. This is because there are thousands of other sites that offer pirated video content to online users for free. Therefore Hulu needs to consider how it will compete with such sites.
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