Tesar-Reynes

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I’ve written about Hulu plenty on this site. As a college senior, one without cable, it’s my favorite way to catch all my shows. What started out as a joint venture between NBC Universal and Fox last year has grown into an Internet phenomenon.

Yet, I get the feeling, not many of our readers are aware of it. Hulu is a medium favored by the young and tech savvy. Older X-gen’s probably have never seen the site.

Marketers have been trying to solve the Internet advertising problem for years. Give credit to NBC and Fox for having the gumption to take a stab at it. And, according to an article from today’s Times, Hulu has solved the code.

The Internet cannot compete with TV’s reach. Let’s accept that. I do feel that younger marketers are far too quick to cite the Internet as the best place to get marketing messages out.

A 30 second spot on Desperate Housewives got you 16 million viewers last week. No way can the Internet compete with those numbers.

In the golden age of TV, just three networks owned the airwaves. That’s a hell of a share. Then came cable, and the universe expanded. Suddenly, you had hundreds of channels. The networks balked at first, unhappy that advertisers would move to buy spots from someone other than them. In more recent years, the networks just said screw it, and bought all the cable channels. Look at NBC Universal and the ability they had to broadcast the Summer Olympics on all their channels. NBC, MSNBC, USA, even the Outdoor Network, showed the Summer Games.

Now, Hulu seems to be finally taking off. As advertising space on the site becomes more valuable, the real estate will go nowhere but up. Are those advertising dollars going to account for most of NBC and Fox’s profits? Of course not. Their bread and butter is network advertising.

There’s a saying in our digital world – “If you don’t keep up with technology, the technology will pass you by.” Hulu is just the first step towards the networks moving to the Internet. Imagine if CBS and ABC decided to start their own Internet TV sites. Imagine five years from now. Who knows what the model will be. Just know that it’s changing.