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The Simpsons Worth More Per Viewer On Hulu Than On Fox

Posted by Soulskill on from the ay-caramba dept.

N!NJA writes with this excerpt from PCWorld: "A tectonic shift has taken place for the digital age: ad rates for popular shows like The Simpsons and CSI are higher online than they are on prime-time TV. If a company wants to run ads alongside an episode of The Simpsons on Hulu or TV.com, it will cost the advertiser about $60 per thousand viewers, according to Bloomberg. On prime-time TV that same ad will cost somewhere between $20 and $40 per thousand viewers. Online viewers have to actively seek out the program they want to watch, so advertisers end up with a guaranteed audience for their commercial every time someone clicks play on Hulu or TV.com. Online programs also have an average of 37 seconds of commercials during an episode, while prime-time TV averages nine minutes of ads."

13 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. The right demographic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It also guarantees that the users seeing the ads are foolish types and likely to spend money. If they had any clue they'd be watching it ad-free through The Pirate Bay.

    1. Re:The right demographic. by Mister_Stoopid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is wrong. I'm about as hard core as they come piracy wise; as long as I've known about the internet I've pirated all my movies and TV shows as a matter of principle.

      Recently, a friend suggested I watch babylon 5, so I started watching them on Hulu for some reason. Hulu only has up to season 2, and when I finished watching that, all of a sudden it seemed like a huge fucking hassle to have to torrent them. The difference in convenience between click->watch in 30 seconds (after the 1st hulu ad) and click->watch in 15 minutes (after the torrent finishes) cannot be overstated.

      Not to mention, anyone under 30 should easily be ADD enough to tab over to slashdot and read 2 stories in the time it takes a 15-second hulu ad to play.

    2. Re:The right demographic. by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ...I can watch Hulu (or any streaming video for that matter) in ~30 seconds. On the other hand, even on a decent connection it might take 30 minutes or more to successfully torrent a show (especially one with few seeders or one with all the episodes bundled together). There are times that I have a few minutes to kill and want to watch a show so I usually put on YouTube or Hulu rather than have to wait for my torrent to complete.

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  2. Re:Probably Because You Can Select the Episode? by geekoid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actuallu, they don't ahve all the episodes.
    It does depend on the show. For example, all the episodes of Simon & Simon are available, but only a few Simpsons.
    I hope this means that will changes.

    One of my favorite shows in the 90's was 'NewsRadio'. It interesting that on Hulu the season after Phil Hartman died isn't there. I wonder if that's just good taste on Hulu's part(that last season is horrid) or of the network just wants them forgotten.

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  3. Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I honestly can't wait until I don't mind watching adverts. That is, they're MORE FUCKING RELEVENT TO ME. I would ENJOY giving any company my personal data if it meant all the adverts I viewed were very relevent to my needs.

  4. Apples to Oranges by TejWC · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Its not a good idea to compare watching commercials on TV vs. Hulu. One major difference that should be taken into consideration is the fact that there is only one commercial between segments of shows on Hulu; while on TV there are multiple. Its easier to "remember" the commercials after only seeing one rather than multiple but at the same time the overall revenue that the episode gets per viewer would probably be much less.

  5. one slight catch to the math there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You also need to consider that you have to buy last years viewers this year when figuring out your $$$ per 1000 rate on television. Hulu should be like google and you can buy 10,000 views of your ad instead of being forced to buy the entire market.

  6. TV is dead, long live TV by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My daughter, aged five, watches youtube, managing to plug in and switch on the PC, login to her mum's account, start Firefox, type "you" and then somehow (this part I've not yet figured out) bootstrap herself into cartoons, music videos, and other random nonsense. She clicks on similar videos and can watch TV like this for several hours. My son, two, is almost there too. I guess, thank god youtube removes adult content.

    First, they ignore the real old cable television, it's utterly uninteresting for them. Secondly, they watch each youtube clip from start to end, and treat advertising, if any, as part of the content.

    How can this //not// be more profitable than legacy TV?

    1. Re:TV is dead, long live TV by dsanfte · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Five-year olds would generally find adult content yucky and boring. Or else hilarious. They wouldn't be 'harmed' by it.

      --
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    2. Re:TV is dead, long live TV by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You don't know how that sense of hilarity will affect the child! In her first sexual experience, she might end up utterly crushing the ego of an emotionally fragile, spotty teenage boy!

      No, but seriously, the issue is more complicated than that. The extent that viewing sex will affect the child is dependent on the reaction of the parents. If they're more conservative on such issues, and react negatively, then it will affect them negatively.

      Some would blame the parents for this, but I don't see how this is different from a child experiencing any other kind of taboo; when they do, and the parents react, we don't usually blame the parents for having such values in the first place.

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  7. Re:Guaranteed? by L3370 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've actually caught myself watching these commercials when viewing tv shows online. Knowing the commercial lasts only 20-30 seconds, it felt like I wasn't wasting my time...and would have rather waited anyway just to make sure the video would load without error.

  8. Sony is missing out big... by Evil+Shabazz · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I love Hulu - in fact, Hulu is the only place I watch "television." House, 24, Bones, Heroes, Family Guy, Simpsons, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report... sure, some shows like House aren't available until 8 days after they air but what do I really miss out on.. a couple days of water cooler chat? Seriously, I can wait for my fix. Not to mention the fact that they just posted Season 4 of Stargate SG1 - now Seasons 1-4 are all available whenever I want them. Hulu is the best thing to happen to television since color.

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  9. Re:A guaranteed audience? by Evil+Shabazz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What's the point of blocking Hulu's ads? They last no more than 30s, and you have to wait for that time anyway... There's a little timer that tells when your show is gonna be back, so just get up and get a drink. Sometimes I think people block ads just to be able to. You're not gaining anything, and you're giving Hulu a reason to no longer be free. If Hulu cannot generate some stream of revenue through selling ads, just how the heck do you expect them to continue to provide you the content you're there to see? Or do you expect the content should just be free for everyone? Really, I'm trying to understand the point...

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