Hulu to start charging for content in 2010.
 

Nooooooooooooooo.


http://gizmodo.com/5387909/hulus-fre...ially-numbered

It's been a while since I used it, but I can't imagine paying for what they were offering at the time of my last visit.

Was only a matter of time.
The free model only works for so long and it is just a tool to build up a brand and traffic.

Eventually you must attempt to milk the cows.

That article seems to suggest hulu should try to be itunes.

yep thats for sure:2 cents:

Dont they sell a good amount of ad space?

theoretically they have more commercial air time than normal tv...

cept i guess its limited to one commercial and not a slew of them

Just like the newspapers, Hulu, and many other sites in the near future. They are going to start charging.

This is the same exact thing that happend in the late 90's and early 2000 on the web. People are so quick to forget. If you were not around back then, your loss. Back then the 'free' Utopian dream internet was not a reality, and the bubble burst.... ten years later, here we are again.

Contrary to what many industry retards think is the future in an ad driven marketplace. It will always come back to business, and accounting 101. If it costs money to make, you are going to charge for that service or you go out of business.

Not everyone is in the traffic game.

Even the traffic tubes are dependent on new, fresh, quality, diversified content for the long term success. People are going to get tired of seeing the same sponsor videos on all the tubes. Right now you have 1000 people pushing the same content and sponsors to the same customers, and I have news for you. BROgrams can outspend you.

So it's a fool's errand for 90% out there.

:2 cents:

I only watch shark tank on it anyway fuck it

Nothing is for FREE in the end but there are alternatives so it will be very interesting to see what and how they want to charge.

Yep.

The Utopian dream of free internet is coming to an end once more, and the 'passing the buck to the consumer' from Econ 101 is back to full effect. It is about fucking time.

However, I am sure many retards in the porn business will not be happy until 20,000 full length 60 minute videos are available for free so they 'might' get a $2 trial sign up. They are probably toiling on this night and day thinking of a new way to fuck themselves, and the industry giving away everything they have for free in hopes of a sale.

Trafffic champs will be ok for awhile in the free game. As long as BROgrams keep paying for that almighty traffic. So until that dries up, you are going to see that piece of the business still feeding the beast (free).

Good posts Barefootsies

depending on the price and how many ads it may or may not be worth it.

i remember a while ago you could watch all the shows on nbc.com but that seemed to have disappeared when hulu came along

Good info here. Great sig!

I'm curious to see how well this works out. It is possible they will get the paying customers and pass the freeloaders off onto other free sites.

Hule is just a failed TUBE

newspaper charging online wont work hulu charging wont work either, yeah some people will pay but nothing to write home about, just them announcing they will start charging will have people stop going there today, surfers have been spoiled rotten and as long as youtube and 1000 other places have everything for free it will be hard for them to make money. Porn sites operate with 0.1% of the staff these guys do, we spend a penny for every 100 dollars they spend on production,

unless strict laws are passed related to content theft and sharing, the movie, music and software industry will continue to get destroyed beyond recognition

the old fucks in washington dont understand this shit, they dont understand 100+ billion dollars a year being stolen from the music, software and movie industry, they dont understand that its destroying entire companies and families, and like everything else the solutions and hearings only come after complete destruction

A lot of the corporations are smart enough to start doing this all at once. Something most greedy adult companies would never consider.

When you have an industry all moving to a 'pay to play' business model at once, you force the consumer to have to pay, or they can piss off. If adult all did this at once, you would force people to pay again.

However, in adult, that would never happen. This is not an 'industry' of collective minds. It is a business model full of a bunch of greedy, self serving mercenaries. While many post on the boards about 'the greater good', few actually follow that. In the end it comes down to what is best for you/company.

The major publications, and studios, have seen that high use bandwidth costs money, not to mention all the production costs. Shrinking mainstream advertising revenue, and more of it moving online, is forcing them to cut back from the 'free' Utopian dream, and revert back to a real, sustainable, business.

That is, if it costs money to produce, you pay money to consume. Capitalism.

Yep, it used to be if a company produced content you had to pay to see it. Sure there were things like free TV and radio, but you had to sit through commercials (before TV and Ipod etc) If you wanted a paper, you bought it. If you wanted a movie, you rented it or paid see it in the theater, etc. It was the content owners that dictated the terms. Then there was a shift. Consumers wanted it for free and the content producers caved and gave it to them. not to mention the industry (not just porn but mainstream as well) is full of followers. If one company has a successful free site, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Then it is just a race to see who can give away the most to attract the most customers.

I think some things will change, but I think it will be slow coming. Hulu may fail, but I think more and more companies will see their income drop and be forced to either charge or go out of business.

the internet still needs an easier way to pay for everything, if things could be done on a massive scale, where it would be easy for users to pay a few cents here and there for things it could add up to massive revenue

Actually, it was not the consumer who shifted. It was desperate business owners, and I use that term loosely.

Online shitheads started to realize the more 'free' the more traffic. The more traffic the more sales. The more traffic and sales the more you could charge for advertising, or glorified spots (TGP) and then you bragged about it.

So then you started a flock of sheep all doing the same thing. Trying to copy what you were doing. They did not take any classes, or read any books. They just tried to copy what you were doing. Stealing your meta tags, and pages, or layouts, and what you did.

They have some success, or not as much, so they give away more free. Instead of 10-15 sec videos, they must be 30-60-120 seconds. Instead of 12 pictures they were 15, then 16, then 20. More free meant more members, more visitors, more money.

Then, in no time, you have 10,000 sheep trying to do the traffic and numbers game until it does not work anymore. Along come the tubes and then start out with the 30 seconds, then a minute ,then 3, then 5, then 20. Repeat the same process all over again.

New business model. People making money hand over fist. Mass traffic. 10,000 sheep trying to copy cat that with same site, same sponsors, same content, same techniques. Not as successful, ok, so more content, longer freebies, and so on...

The fact has always been most people do not KNOW HOW TO SELL!

They have managed for a decade to play the traffic, free and numbers game. But when it stopped working a year or two ago. They threw more and more traffic at the wall, and less was sticking. Because that is not a sales process. That is called crossing your toes and hoping to get lucky.

Those who know how to sell will survive this storm. Those who do not, will not. Paying for what you use is a business model. Giving away everything for free is not. Which is what most corporations are now finding.

Desperation and greed for traffic and hope of sales is what opened this up. But big business is starting to realize, just as most in adult should, you are not after volume. You are after SALES, conversions, customers (unless you are in the traffic game).

:2 cents:

The original article says; "He later told B&C's Claire Atkinson that not all content on Hulu would be behind a pay wall."

It's not all going paid, of course not... FREE is what sells, because PEOPLE don't want to be sold.


Hulu has said from day one they were planing on going to a paid platform, this isn't a surprise at all. They have a player coming out, micro billing, they talked about live events and such.

Read the trades. Mainstream and adult.

A lot of companies are planning to go the micro billing route. They have been talking about this for months, or years now. However, it is starting to get a lot more coverage. That should give many an idea on what is ahead, and you should already be moving your business in that direction.

if there are no serious laws passed it dont matter if companies decide to charge they will go out of business, the customer decides who stays and goes and people have access to tons of stolen content online, almost anything they can dream of, wait until fiber optic surfing starts, watch and see people emailing and uploading gigs of shit to friends and family, stoage is no longer an issue, burning dvd's no longer an issue, and once download speeds wont be an issue everything will just collapse.

I mean once the older generation goes forget it, TV will be a thing of the past, seriously how much time do you spend now watching TV vs 10 years ago, now think how much you will spend in 10 years from now, more and more people are canceling their cable service or large parts of it.

You really think there will be the 10 o'clock nightly news in 15 years from now? only ones holding that up are senior citizens, thats why every other commercial now starts with "are you over the age of 150 and in need of a wheelchair" thats the only people watching it, or "life alert commercials" etc

and for companies banking on online advertising, I mean that sucker phase is dieing out quick, as more companies notice little clicks on their ads they are cutting back on advertising or demanding lower rates, rates today on large networks like AOL are 80% less than in 02-03, and you can dictate your own terms.

I agree. The new generation is changing the media world. The demand it free and fast and companies are bowing to them and giving it to them in hopes of making a few dollars off of them. Some may, but most will eventually fail. They will change the how things are consumed. Like you said TV is a dying media. Ratings are down across the board. Part of that is because now there are more shows then ever before available, but it is also because people spend a lot more time online. It won't be long until most people have high speed cable and can stream anything and everything right to their TV.

I can see it in myself. These days I still have cable, but only to watch sports and a few TV shows. 10 years ago I had a show or two a night I would watch. Now next to nothing. If I want entertainment there is plenty online to compete with those shows. It also used to be if you wanted to download bit torrent files and things like that it was tough. You had to hit warez sites and other sites and actually know a little about what you were looking for and doing. Now three searches on google and you are downloading movies that are still in the theater. For me the ultimate example of this is my brother's sister in law. She is not a very bright person and knows just enough about computers and the internet to be dangerous (her computer is always infected with tons of spyware and viruses), but she downloads music and movies like crazy. If she can figure it out, anyone can figure it out.

I do think there will be a change in the income stream though. Companies simply won't make big movies or promote big musical acts or create expensive TV shows if they can't make money with them. I think eventually laws will catch up to the technology and the business demands will change. I think there will always be a market for movies to be seen in a theater because people enjoy the experience of a movie on the big screen, the hard part will be figuring out how to stop/monetize those that don't care about the big screen experience and just want to see the movie now on their computer or TV.

Like you say though, if the laws don't change to help protect some of these companies they will be in big trouble and we could see the end of certain types of entertainment because they just are no longer profitable and everything will look like Youtube which is to say it will be 90% shit mixed in with 10% of stuff worth watching.

I agree. I call in the porn arms race. One guy saw link lists getting traffic so he started a TGP and got more traffic. That became an MPG that got even more traffic and that became a tube site and so on. Eventually you hit the end of that though and there becomes a point where it stops making money. We haven't gotten there yet, but I don't see it too far off.

I do think consumers want it free and now partially because it is human nature to take it for free if offered and partially because they have been trained that if they are just patient they can find most anything they want for free. That will have to end as well, the question is when and how will it all come about?

I can't see it working unless its free.
WG

If it means they actually let British people see it I would pay a bit rather than wait ages to see shows from the States.

That's funny, since the facts say otherwise.

$5submissions posted that article with the stats just the other day. Long story short, more businesses are moving to online advertising where they get a better bang for their buck, and can better track the results and demographics.

:2 cents:

Consumers want it free because they are tired of being ripped off, cross sales, can't cancel, mysterious charges on their bill. Just like my Aaliyah Love example posted over on MP, and how I was charged for a cross sale after unchecking the box on sign up, and taking 4 days to resolve.

THAT is why people do not want to use credit cards. Ask around on the surfer forums. They will tell you that themselves. Some of those who used to buy simply got tired of their cards being banged, refunds refused, content not what promised, sites with no updates, or 1 a month.

When you treat the customer like an idiot. They will show YOU in the end. Taking their dollars elsewhere, or simply stealing your shit. What you have now is a product of treating customers like they are mindless tolls on the highway.

You will take what we give you. We will charge you for shit you did not order. When you try and cancel, we will refuse. When you do get a refund, we will block you so you can't sign up to another site.

Add to it the credit crunch, and advancing technologies, and tada. The perfect storm.

are you thinking short term or long term?

"they get a better bang for their buck, and can better track the results and demographics"

picture this, you just dropped 500k on youtube advertising, you got a report back that said you got 20,000,000 views and you got 1000 clicks (1:20,000 is about right what youll get off youtube if you have a banner there) in other words you can pat yourself on the back that you just spent $500 per click to your site that sells an item for 30 bucks.

You tell me what the renewal rate is, you tell me what ad you seen on youtube the same advertiser over a year now or on myspace, tell me the last time you clicked on a banner, name me 5 banners you have seen the past 2 weeks online and what they where selling?

My point in all this is that the business plan of relying on advertisers online to support your business may be valid now but as time goes on their rates will have to keep coming down non stop so the PPC makes sense.

See what you said about "can better track the results" is great for the advertiser but a nightmare for the website selling the ads.

Never used it before, guess I never will. No big. Too much tv on anyway.

You apparently are taking my statements, and relating 'online advertising' to tube only type of sites. Which is not what I was saying.

When I talk about online advertising, I am talking about AdWords, and MediaCenter, and direct advertising buys, coupons, pre rolls, among many other different sales channels, and tracking available. Not just YouTube style sites.

Also I run tube sites, and can tell you that clicks are much higher on a tube for advertising then it is on a traditional pay site. Others with tubes have said the same. However, I suppose that could vary depending on the type of tube, and page lay out.

Anyway, as I said. Advertisers can more easily control, and track, their ad dollars on the internet then they can on radio and tv. They get all the demographic data, who's clicking, how long watching, and all that other data mining that is delicious to advertisers.

They can then start tailoring their ads, and target you in your gmail, and other ads you are seeing across the web. Meaning, they are hitting their target audiences, even with or without the buys.

From a company, and ad campaign perspective. It is simply more value for their dollar online then traditional media, and they get a lot more data and feedback for the future tailoring of ads, and products.

When it comes to porn I agree that there are a group of customers who have been screwed over and now are simply unwilling to buy anymore. As this happens to more and more people the word gets out and there are fewer and fewer people that are willing to pay for porn even if it is just because of the stories they have heard.

oooold news :)

True dat.

I agree that the all-free content revenue model is going to die soon. I worked in the internet industry through the dot.bomb era and this is almost exactly what played out then. Many are going to go out of business, especially free tube sites, I predict. The bandwidth costs of a site can only be sustained for so long with no or little revenue.

To do a microtransaction model, there would need to be a trusted virtual currency network. This is getting established in the online games industry. People buy virtual currency (points, coins, gold, or whatever that company wants to call it) with real money in batches of $10-25. Then they can spend the virtual currency in their free-to-play online game.

I don't know of anyone who is doing this type of virtual currency microtransaction company in the adult industry. Does anyone know of someone doing that? If a lot of sites joined that network and accepted the same virtual currency, it would be a viable business model. Charge 10 tokens to see a set, with USD $1 = 50 tokens (or something like that). The virtual currency provider handles all the real-money transactions and then pays the paysite owner based on the tokens they collected.

The closest thing I can think of is something to CCBill, in how they pay the paysite owner and the affiliates, but with virtual currency handling instead.

Exactly.

Well said.

Thank you. :thumbsup

Inspirational move ! I'm super excited

Look at what happed at netzero :mad:

just means more traffic will flow back into torrent and warez sites...