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Who Is Watching Hulu?

May 15, 2009  •  Post A Comment

Executives at Hulu think Nielsen is undercounting the number of people who visit the Web video site, the New York Times reports. While Nielsen says Hulu had 8.9 million visitors in March, comScore puts the figure at 42 million, the paper says. The difference has huge implications for Hulu’s advertising revenue.
—Jon Lafayette

11 Comments

  1. That’s a huge difference. Methodology?

  2. That’s a huge difference. Methodology?

  3. I’m on Hulu as much as I’m in my email . . . that’s a lot, like every 5 minutes all day!
    Nielsen is “most definitely” under reporting because I know how much I go there and “stay” there to watch all the shows I missed on TV and to watch all the other shows I used to like.
    When I’m not in my emails, I’m on Hulu!

  4. Hulu should use Google analytics . . . with Google analytics a visit is truly a visit.

  5. Hulu’s complaning? Hmm…..
    The number defines their advertising rates….I think I’d lean towards believeing Neilsen here.
    I know many, many very ‘wired’ people. I’ve asked and NONE of them use Hulu. Several have stated they don’t need it when they have DVR services.
    Maybe Seth McFarlane, Alec Baldwin, Eliza Dushku, and Denis Leary contracted to do the commercials for a wee bit more money than Hulu anticipated would come in.
    Sincerely,
    A Skeptic.

  6. I am a DVR household and use Hulu and other streaming services frequently, in a room where there is no TV. I wish there were a wider range of content available on all the streaming services–some older series that used to stream via AOL have been pulled for no apparent reason (cutting into DVD sales of Hawaiian Eye?!?). The same series are available on all the streaming services–there should be more variety if services want to differentiate themselves. Online streaming lets me watch more television, not less, so content providers should suck it up and make more content available.

  7. Personal anecdotes, intriguing as they may be, do not equal methodology.

  8. Methodology: Nielsen is trying to rely on its old school weighted sample technique to measure demographics and “uniques;” the technology already exists to get an accurate count of page views and streams.

  9. Maybe Nielsen’s methodology counts unique visitors regardless of how often they go to Hulu in a given time period, while Hulu simply counts hits.
    if true, Nielsen’s methodology would be a more accurate appraisal.
    Some will claim that that Nielsen is in cahoots with the broadcast industry to preserve their “old school” methods and broadcasting’s lead over new tech, but one has to realize that Hulu has a vested interest in claiming their numbers are higher.
    After all, the common wisdom among the digirati is that online will replace offline. “New” always replaces “old.” They just love to trot out the old technology myth about cars and buggy whip makers.
    Too bad they’re wrong.

  10. Um… I think EVERYONE is watching Hulu. Heh.

  11. Good post, thanks

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