Walt Disney is in negotiations with Fox and NBC to take an equity stake in Hulu.com. In exchange, Disney would get broader distribution of its ABC shows via the video site.
Disney had focused, in the past, on drawing viewers to the ABC website - the first major broadcast net to offer prime time programming online - but has apparently decided that the site alone is not strong enough for it to compete successfully in the crowded marketplace, writes the Los Angeles Times. Michael McGuire, media analyst with Gartner Inc., says a deal between Disney and Hulu is an acknowledgment of Hulu's growth and ability to sustain a large audience.
Hulu pulled 34.7 million viewers in February, per comScore Video Metrix, or about a quarter of the total U.S. internet users. The site climbed to the fourth most popular destination for online video in February, after experiencing a 33% jump in video views on the heels of its Super Bowl commercial at the outset of the month. Though the site is still dwarfed by YouTube, ScreenDigest predicts that Hulu's ad revenue will match that of YouTube's in 2009, with both pulling about $180 million in the U.S.
According to consumer tech researcher The Diffusion Group, 83% of adult consumers watch online video at least once a week, reports Reuters (via Yahoo). The report predicts that long-form videos, including TV shows and movies, will total 22.8 billion streams - or 4.1% of total video streams - annually by 2013. The vast majority of streams will be for short-form and user-generated video.
But advertising revenue will come in large part from long-form video, with 69% of total ad-related revenue coming from long-form in 2013, according to the report.
