Hulu case

Q 1: Identify what the best interests of content owners, advertisers and audience are? How does Hulu serve them in the meantime? There are two interests of content owners. One is advertising revenue. Most of the content owners are also the equity partners of Hulu; therefore, they receive around 70% of the advertising revenue generated by the content they provided. As for non-equity partners, share of advertising revenue vary from different content owners. The other is attracting new viewers. According to the case, Hulu is able to grow the audience of cable networks by 20% for any single episode. Also, Hulu does not require contracts to be exclusive, meaning content owners can make deal with other sites. The best interest of advertisers is increasing the efficiency of their advertisement. Hulu aims to provide a “ more targeted, interactive, and effective advertising experience. ” First, Hulu provides three different advertising formats: standard format, premium format and exclusive format. Advertisers can choose one of these format which best fit their needs. Besides, Hulu’s feedback system allows users to “ thumb up” or “ thumb down” advertisement. Second, Hulu, as a on-line broadcaster, is able to trace users’ browsing habits and deliver the advertisement that the users have interest in. This significantly “ increase relevancy to users and increase efficiency for advertisers. ” As for users, Hulu provides all the content for free and puts a lot of efforts on interactive functions. For example, registered users can review and rate a video. They can also share a video on social network or on blogs. Hulu even has a “ community hour” to read and respond to users’ questions. Also, Hulu lab provides more customized features to users. Hulu serves all the three kinds of customers by providing a simple and enjoyable viewing experience. Content providers can increase advertising revenue by providing more popular shows or episodes to Hulu. With more shows or episodes on Hulu, viewers can watch the show anytime and anywhere for free. With suitable format of advertisement, advertisers have a better efficiency of ads and users have better viewing experience.