Last time:

Hulu on TV + Humote(working title) = butts on couch + more eyes per screen

butts on couch + more eyes per screen = more brand awareness + more ad $$

This Time:

As this century charges into adolescence certain once-familiar concepts are threatening to become obsolete.  I’m going to be explaining dodgeball and “the smoking section” to my children, much as my father explained segregation and “cowboys and indians” to me.  (Not to equate dodgeball with segregation.)

Other concepts stick around, but undergo serious changes.  “Journalism” is one of them.  ”Hangin’ Out” is another.

Before I had broadband access, hangin’ out required me to be less than 50 feet from at least one other person who knew and/or tolerated me.  Not anymore.

Now there’s facebook, instant messaging, Skype, twitter,  X-Box Live, Google Chat, and the countless others.  I can perform most of the basic functions of hanging out (talking smack, feigning concern, playing Mario Kart, scowling) without any kind of proximity to my friends.

But there’s one thing missing.  One key ingredient of “doing nothing, together” hasn’t been quite made the new social leap.

This is, of course, watching TV.

Before television, no one hung out.  The concept did not exist.  Now, people are finding new and exciting ways to hang out, and TV isn’t even in the picture.

I smell another opportunity Hulu.

The Long Distance Solution

Hulu hasn’t been a complete stranger to social networking, but their relationship has been rocky.  It’s partnership with Splashcast initially seemed promising, but the “social TV” service folded earlier this year.

Splashcast allowed users to leave comments while watching shows on Hulu.  Those comments would be shown to your Splashcast buddies at the same time in the show you left them.  If you dropped an “OMG” 34 minutes into Lost, friends who watched that episode after you would see that “OMG” exactly 34 minutes deep.  It was like chatting with the past.

Hulu has a presence on Facebook.  With the Facebook Connect app I can check out what Jillian is watching.   Whoopty doo.

So let’s make Hulu a truly social experience.  It fits with Hulu’s core value of freedom.  We want to give the viewer the freedom to assemble, digitally.  I call it WatchWith.

WatchWith would allow viewers to invite others into a session, and communicate with them through video, chat, or voice.  It would expand on Facebook Connect, and allow your family and Facebook friends to see what you’re watching, and then click once to watch it with you.

Here’ s how it might go down:

It’s almost Christmas and you’re in Chicago, 400 miles from home.  You pull yourself into the hotel room and pull off your wet boots.  Deciding it’s time to teach the five-year old the merits of bad film, you text message your wife, open your laptop, start Hulu, and invite your son into a WatchWith session of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

The webcams in both laptops allows you to see your son giggle at the no budget costume design, courtesy of Skype, at the right side of your screen.  Your brother-in-law notices your selection on Facebook, and joins the session.  He doesn’t have a webcam, but you can read him ask your son about what Santa might bring him in the chat window below the movie.  After telling his godfather, the kid loses interest, and quits to go bug his mother.

You and your brother-in-law finish the movie, after ripping it to shreds in the chat window.

Real time chat and video options, and a foot in the door of existing social networks would make Hulu a true social TV experience.  Rather than simply telling others what you’re watching, it gives them a call to action to join you.

And it gives friends and family the freedom to hang out with each other, wherever they may be.

– Adam Gardner

<–Let me see part three again.

Let’s do some figuring*:

• 3 out of 4 American households have a computer.
• 35 million Americans have broadband.
• 75 percent of Americans own a cell phone.
• 70 percent of American households will have HDTVs in five years.
• 7 million HDTVs will be connected to the internet by the end of 2010.

And here’s another seemingly unrelated figure:

• 8 out of 10 times, people watch Hulu alone.

That’s not to say that Hulu viewers are lonely people — only those who use it to watch reruns of Party of Five.  This figure highlights that most of the time Hulu isn’t watched in an environment that’s conducive to groups of people.

Desktop computers tend to be stuck in an office or a bedroom, and aren’t the best things to gather ’round.  Laptops don’t fit the bill either, obviously. This is not a very practical set-up.

So, the Hulu brand should expand on it’s core value of freedom.  This one is in the Bill of Rights.  Give us the freedom to assemble.

From an advertising perspective, its in Hulu’s best interest to be seen by more than one set of eyes per session.  More eyes means more dollars.  More importantly, community viewing increases brand awareness for Hulu and the content it hosts.  And really, laughing alone is just not as fun.

How can we fix this?

The most obvious solution, put Hulu on the television.  Couches work better for groups than desk chairs.

The Living Room Solution

Remember those 7 million HDTVs that are connected to the internet?  That’s why, they’re watching Hulu, or Boxee, or Apple TV.  But with 35 million Americans hooked up to broadband, and even larger saturation of households with HDTV, that 7 million is poised to skyrocket.

There’s just an issue of interactivity.  Most desktops and laptops have HDMI support, which is all you need to hook up to an HDTV.  But how can you communicate with your computer from the comfort of your couch?  Don’t say wireless keyboard and mouse, that’s just clunky.

Remember how one in four Americans owns a cell phone?  That’s your remote control.  All it needs is an app, which I’m tentatively titling the Humote.

You grab your iPhone, or Droid, or BlackberryTouch, which is connected to your wireless network, and start the Humote.  You select the most recent episode of The Office from a searchable database.  Your phone instantly sends a signal across your network to your laptop, and — with the aid of a tiny background program — opens your browser to that episode.

Steve Carrell’s big stupid smile appears on your HDTV.  Your laptop, connected, hums along quietly where the cable box would be.  Your wife laughs with you and the five year-old, who’s thinks Dwight is silly.  You use your Humote to pause when the baby cries, and to switch to Taxi Driver after you put the rugrat in bed.

An app like the Humote serves the Hulu brand’s core competency by giving viewers the freedom to watch in the living room, and the freedom to watch with friends and family.

Putting more eyes on the screen increases brand awareness, as does the presence of the Humote on Apple’s App Store, Verizon’s Media Store, the Droid community, and other digital outlets.

In the next installment, we’ll be assembling again, differently.

– Adam Gardner

<–  Take me back to part 2.

Let’s move on to part 4.  –>

*From About.com and “Numbers Games.” Sound & Vision Nov. ’09

Avast!

There are lots of reasons to turn to piracy.  Perhaps one has a fondness for shoulder-dwelling parrots and plunderin’ booty.  Maybe it’s inspired by an irrational fear of crocodiles and the clocks that tick inside them. Could be that you just want a reason to dreadlock your beard.

Or maybe you just want to catch up on the first two seasons of Mad Men, and can’t afford to shell out eighty bucks.

It would seem that the biggest draw for internet piracy is the lack of a price tag — and I’ll admit it certainly doesn’t hurt.  But in reality the main reason to pirate isn’t it’s free-ness, but the freedom that it offers, specifically freedom of choice.

The real draw to piratebay.org isn’t that you can get anything for free, but simply that you can get anything.

But choice isn’t the only freedom we want.

Who doesn’t love analogies?  I regularly torrent music, but I also buy a lot of CDs.  I torrent to test an album.  If I really like it, I’ll go to Plan 9 records and buy it.  And while I want to support the artist and local business and all that jazz, that’s not why I pick up the CD.  I buy the CD because I have a CD player in my car, and I don’t have a burner.

As outdated as it may be, in this case a CD gives me the most freedom when it comes to how and where I enjoy the product.

This is what Hulu gives me:  freedom on many levels.  I can watch what I want, when I want, where and how I want to.  In brandspeak,  freedom is its core competency, and what is quickly making the Hulu brand a first choice for televised content.

Piracy offers freedom, but there’s danger on them thar seas.  Cannonballs have been replaced by spyware.  Computer viruses are the new scurvy.  The MPAA and the RIAA are like the Spanish Armada or Peter Pan or whatever else is antagonistic to pirates.

Point is, there’s plenty of reasons not to pirate — as long as there’s other options.  And for millions of broke college students and new families who can’t afford a DVR, or even cable — but do require an internet connection — the limits of television are making it a less viable option.

But we will get our content.  Oh yes.  We will get our content.

There’s one thing that’s common to all pirates, software or peg-legged:  we don’t have any sort of moral qualm about the booty plunderin’.  My generation was raised by Napster.  We were indoctrinated early.

So, as long as Hulu carries what we want to watch, we’ll keep tuning in, and continue to be exposed to revenue generating advertising.  We don’t mind the commercials — maybe even more commercials — we just want the freedom.  It is far and away the best solution to piracy, and don’t just take my word for it.

But take that freedom away and millions of ad dollars will walk the plank.  Y’arr.

– Adam Gardner

<–  Take me back to part 1.

Enough pirate metaphors, part 3 please.  –>

Hulu’s future is anything but certain.  They’ll likely test out some sort of subscription model in early 2010.  Hulu is more popular than ever, but they still haven’t made any money.

NBC — which owns a third of the service and its content – will likely be purchased by archnemesis Comcast, who also wants to get in on the internet television gig with TV Anywhere.  Don’t count on Huluing The Office if that happens.

Oh yea, and a little company called Google will be getting in the game.   The rub:  the company that’s built on freebies will be charging $1.99 per show.

The next few months will be critical.  One wrong move, such as locking away too much content in a subscription plan, and Hulu — hell, maybe free internet TV as we know it — could be done for.  A few right moves, and we’ll all be watching whatever we want, whenever we want it.

Over the next few installments, I’ll be talking about some advantages Hulu offers, and how they might expand on them.  Maybe they’ll listen, and this time next year Alec Baldwin will be eating all of our brains with a melon baller.

–Adam Gardner

Onward to part two…