YouTube and Hulu Announcements

It seems a couple of recent announcements related to online video have some implications in the digital home: Hulu announced its Desktop application, which allows Hulu to run as its own application, outside of the web browser, while YouTube announced the YouTube XL concept, making videos easier and more enjoyable to view on a TV. Unfortunately, there are some serious shortcomings to both of these applications which don’t necessarily help move online video to the living room where more people might enjoy it. 

While the YouTube XL announcement on the surface seems to support online video on the TV, it leaves out a tremendously important aspect – premium content. Sure, it is entertaining to watch “keyboard cat” and other user-generated content. But, do you really need to experience that on your HDTV, especially after you’ve viewed the video on your PC several times already? YouTube XL is accessed through a web browser, so the viewer can use other devices like the PlayStation 3 to access content, but without any premium content, it is unlikely that this announcement will make a big impact. 

The Hulu announcement does make it easier for those people with a PC connected to the TV to navigate the service’s content by using an Apple or Windows Media Center remote control. However, the key here, once again, is that the consumer must be navigating that content on the PC. Certainly, a small percentage of people have their PC connected to a TV, but for the majority of consumers, this is not an ideal situation. Hulu continues to build a business model that excludes the living room, which could be traced back to its owners – premium content providers – who don’t want to step on the toes of broadcasters. 

The real value, in terms of both business model and consumer adoption lies in getting premium content from the Internet to the TV, preferably without involving the PC (or at least without directly connecting a PC to the TV). There are still a lot of different business models and technologies being sorted out, but at least online video continues to evolve.