Overtaking Yahoo, the TV-and-movie viewing Web site Hulu moved into third place in the online video rankings in March, according to the digital entertainment rating agency comScore. A joint venture between NBC Universal and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (NWSA) launched one year ago, Hulu aired 380 million videos last month, surpassing Yahoo’s 335 million.
Online video is still dominated by YouTube, a Google Inc. (GOOG) subsidiary, on which viewers watched nearly 6 billion clips – almost 14 times the number of second-place Fox Interactive Media, which is fully owned by News Corp.
Since its debut in March 2008, Hulu has signed a number of exclusive content deals with major film and TV companies including NBC, Fox, PBS, Comedy Central, and several movie studios. Viewership on the site has climbed steadily and many observers see the ad-supported site as a model for the future distribution of movies and TV shows.
Several news outlets have reported that Hulu will announce an exclusive content deal with Walt Disney Co. (DIS), which owns ABC and Pixar Animation Studios. Disney has been a leader in moving toward online video but has largely kept its content to its own sites. Disney is said to be seeking an equity stake and a seat on Hulu’s board in exchange for some form of exclusive rights to present Disney-owned content on the site.
Among other things, a Disney-Hulu hook-up would represent a blurring of the lines between major TV networks, which have been historic rivals and are seeing their viewership decline at alarming rates. NBC owns a major stake in Hulu and Disney owns ABC.
As Hulu has grown more popular, its average time-spent-per-viewer has declined. The site recorded 58 minutes per viewer in March, down from 79 in January. YouTube viewers spent an average of almost two-and-a-half hours on the site in March.
A spokesman for Hulu declined to comment on the Disney partnership reports.
