Hulu hits 2m paid users, cuts ad costs to draw sponsors
updated 11:00 am EDT, Tue April 17, 2012
Hulu doesn't charge for incompletely watched ads
US streaming video service Hulu has just celebrated its own achievements by announcing that its paid Hulu Plus subscription service has reached the two million subscribers milestone this past winter, which is faster than any other US service, be it online or offline. It's also shared some news that's bound to make advertisers happy. It will not charge advertisers if viewers skip their ads, only billing them based on a 100 percent completion rate.
The change applies only to ads sold by Hulu's own team and applies to both Hulu and Hulu Plus. The industry-first move is also said not to add any costs to Hulu advertisers. The first advertisers to help Hulu out with this by being beta testers include Zenith Media, General Mills, and Horizon Media.
Cutting rates is meant to draw in more overall advertising and possibly lure traditional advertisers that may embrace TV but are hesitant to support online video.
