Hulu, the video site owned by Disney/ABC, NBC Universal, and Fox and long regarded as the No. 2 video site behind YouTube, is actually no where near as popular as it was believed to be, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Tuesday). Previous estimates of the number of viewers accessing the website plunged 45 percent to 24 million in June following an overhaul of ComScore's methodology, raking it at No. 10 among video websites, the newspaper said. Even at the earlier figure of 43.5 million, Hulu was believed to be barely making a profit for its three owners. It recently rolled out a subscription model in the hope that a large share of its viewers would be willing to pay $10 a month for an expanded list of programs. The new figures are expected to affect Hulu's ability to win additional advertisers. Andrew Lipsman, a ComScore analyst, told the Times that Hulu was hit both by declining interest in TV shows during the summer rerun period and "a projection factor that was probably a bit too high. We have better information and recalibrated."

27/07/2010