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Mike Berkley  //  Product Strategy @ Comcast's Social Technology Group. Formerly CEO of SplashCast Media. This is my personal blog. My writing and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Comcast.

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May 18 / 10:40am

Will iPhone / iPad TV Apps Engage Advertisers?

Since it launched with Apple's tablet in early April, the ABC app has 609,000 downloads and 2.1 million episode starts. "That's a significant amount of viewership since launch," said Albert Cheng, exec VP-digital media for Disney ABC Television Group. "For us, it's additional distribution and additional inventory, but the inventory is an incredible premium experience.
via adage.com

I think the jury is still out regarding the advertising value of TV apps. The problem is there's now so much TV inventory with broadcast + cable + online. Adding mobile apps to the mix only creates more supply. As an industry, maybe we ought to focus on increasing demand and actually limiting supply. 

That doesn't mean limiting viewer access to content on different devices.  It means being more selective about what inventory is made available to advertisers, and how to best package it.  It also means capturing more value back from viewers, via subscriptions and non-free apps.  Give users a super-compelling experience via a TV app, and they will pay a few to several bucks for it. 

That may be the full revenue value of apps.  But building that direct relationship with viewers is priceless.

Filed under  //  ABC   Advertising   iPad  
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Apr 1 / 7:48am

I Don't Think Hulu Will Ever Launch an iPad App

http://newteevee.com/2010/03/31/hulu-may-test-subscription-service-on-ipad/

See above post. The NYT ran an article saying that a Hulu iPad application may be in development. Sure, it may be in development, but will it ever see the light of day? Probably not.

Hulu's parents (NBC, Fox, and ABC) have tirelessly enforced their cardinal rule to Hulu: Stream Only to PCs! That means no Boxee, no Roku, no Netflix, no XBox... And NO MOBILE.

Why such a strict law? Because Hulu hasn't been able to generate nearly as much revenue per stream as its parents can do on their own (via TV broadcast or even online, after Hulu's rev share is taken out). Streaming to TV is dangerous b/c it could undermine their bread and butter business (cable, satellite). Streaming to mobile or iPad is still virgin territory, and Hulu's parents probably want to keep those channels close to their chests.

I believe Hulu exists simply for defense: to keep honest consumers away from torrents (illegal, pirated downloads). Launching mobile or iPad apps does not really help Hulu's parents from a defensive perspective. At least not yet.

So, there is very little incentive for Hulu's parents to approve a Hulu mobile or iPad app. They can just as easily do it themselves and keep 100% of the subscription revenue. Their bet would be that people are fans of TV shows more than fans of Hulu (ie, people will go to where the content is, whether on a Hulu app or LOST TV Show app).

Filed under  //  Hulu   iPad  
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