When soap operas “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” moved online, it wasn’t clear how fans would watch them. It turns out that most viewers are binge-watching — so the soaps’ production company is cutting back on the number of new episodes each week. Read more »
News Corp COO Chase Carey spoke about Fox’s digital strategy in an earnings call Wednesday afternoon. The company saw strong growth in home video, thanks to digital downloads. Carey also acknowledged that Hulu will have to adapt in coming years to compete with Netflix. Read more »
This week, famous faces, new shows and pleas for advertising dollars brought many web video companies to web video’s version of TV’s upfronts. Here are just a few of the biggest stories to emerge. Read more »
More than four million people now pay to access Hulu Plus streams, and all of that streaming shows: The site registered more than one billion streams across its free and paid service in Q1. Read more »
Nielsen is rolling out a pilot product that lets TV networks track viewing of shows on their websites. The tool doesn’t yet account for viewing on mobile devices, and the pilot doesn’t include viewing on sites like Hulu and YouTube. Read more »
Two years after ABC canceled them, soap operas One Life to Live and All My Children are coming back to life online, with four new 30-minute episodes per week available on Hulu and iTunes. But soap fans who are not used to online viewing may not tune in. Read more »
It’s now common practice for canceled shows to find their way to fans via digital means, but there’s a big difference between uploading unaired episodes and truly coming back to life. Read more »
Hulu’s Apple TV app has been given a major facelift to better highlight new content. The relaunch could set off a revamp of the service across various CE devices. Read more »
Hulu has a new CEO — for now, anyway: SVP of Content Andy Forssell will take over as acting CEO when Jason Kilar leaves by the end of the month. Read more »
Fanhattan, which is like a TV Guide for iPad, has launched out a beta web version with new discovery and recommendation features. On the web, it offers more content recommendations from more providers — 29 on the web, compared to 16 on iOS. Read more »
What if you could watch a movie before its theatrical release on Hulu? Subscribers of Hulu’s Japanese service will have the chance to do just that next week — but only if they’re quick. Read more »
GetGlue’s new iPhone app takes conversations about TV shows to facebook. Next up for the company is to add online-exclusive content from Hulu and elsewhere. Read more »
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is leaving the company along with CTO Rich Tom. The two will stay on in the next months to manage the transition. Read more »
NextGuide updated its iPad app with 18,000 clips of current TV shows from Hulu’s library of content. That’s good news for NextGuide users, but it also raises an interesting possibility for Hulu: The service could generate tons of additional views by spreading its clips more liberally. Read more »
Amazon is testing a $7.99/month Prime membership to help it compete against Hulu+ and Netflix’s monthly streaming video plans. The option is only available to some users for now, and if you go to the Prime signup page, you may not see the offer. Read more at GigaOM »
The internet has never wanted for dance videos, but DS2DIO seeks to create a central hub for dance-related content of all genres on YouTube, guided by a guy who knows a little bit about making the art of dance cinematic. Read more »
Seth McFarlane’s performance on Saturday Night Live became available on Hulu Japan just hours after it aired on NBC in the U.S., and upcoming episodes will be released in the country just as fast. But don’t expect Hollywood to give up on international windows altogether. Read more »
Jon Miller, the well-respected chief digital officer of News Corp, is on the way out after presiding over the company’s sprawling digital properties. The move comes at a time that News Corp is splitting into distinct entertainment and publishing companies. Read more »
A leaked memo hints at an uncertain future for Hulu after a buyout of co-owner Providence Equity Partners. Not only could CEO Jason Kilar leave the company, but Hulu’s co-owners News Corp. and Disney don’t seem to see eye-to-eye on key issues. Read more »
Aereo, the company that wants to deliver broadcast TV online and to any device, has a new pricing plan that puts it on par with a Hulu subscription. The plan aims to get folks to try it out and to challenge the broadcasters’ current revenue models. Read more at GigaOM »
The company hasn’t reported Hulu Plus subscription data since revealing that it hit the 2 million mark earlier this year. Of course, with Hulu presenting its new originals and foreign acquisitions to TV critics Tuesday in Beverly Hills, having a hit series wouldn’t hurt subscriber growth. Read more »
Remember when Friendster was the hot social network, publishers doubted that ebooks would ever sell, and Netflix thought DVDs in red envelopes was the future? We do — that was that state of digital media when paidContent launched in 2002. Read more »
Hulu will team with the BBC to produce the fourth season of the satirical comedy, which focuses on the inner workings of the British government. The first three seasons of the show will start running on Hulu and Hulu Plus starting July 29. Read more »
The suspenders are back starting Tuesday night, with Family Guy and Ted creative mastermind Seth MacFarlane serving as the first guest on King’s new interview show. The half-hour program will run on Hulu, Hulu Plus and Ora TV in the early-evening hours Monday thru Thursday. Read more »
Defunct Web 1.0-era VOD company Intertainer continues to file patent suits, alleging Viacom transgresses its technology when streams shows like Spongebob Squarepants. Intertainer is currently litigating with Hulu and has a 10-year history of filing complaints and winning settlements. Read more »
Battleground was Hulu’s first foray into original scripted programming. How has producing online-only TV content changed since Hulu picked up the show, and what’s up next for Battleground? We talked to executive producer J.D. Walsh to find out. Read more »
Bernstein Research wonders if the decision by Providence Equity Partners to pull its minority stake out of Hulu is a signal that the entertainment conglomerates who own most of the streaming service — and who wish to uphold TV’s multichannel model — don’t want it to grow. Read more »
While serving as News Corp. chairman and CEO five years ago, Peter Chernin helped secure a $100 million investment into Hulu by Providence Equity Partners. Now, Providence is walking away from Hulu with around $200 million and putting it into Chernin’s production company. Read more »
As government strives to keep up with the broadband age, the Senate held a hearing covering the future of television, but midway through I realized that the Senate has it all wrong. The future of TV isn’t found in deregulation, it’s found on the Internet. Read more at GigaOM »
Germany’s broadcasters ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL won’t be able to launch their own Hulu-like service for catch-up TV, if today’s day in court is any indication. A judge agreed with regulators that the platform would establish a duopoly. That’s good news for Hulu. Read more »
Hulu Plus, Hulu’s paid subscription service, has hit 2 million users and is helping put the company’s revenue on a faster pace than last year, said Hulu’s CEO Jason Kilar, speaking at the Ad Age Digital conference in New York. Read more at GigaOM »
Hulu just cut the subscription price of its Japanese video service by a third. The company is now charging the equivalent of $12 per month in Japan, as opposed to more than $18 before the price change. The move mimics a similar step in the U.S.. Read more »
A business that pays people to expose bogus patents announced it will offer a cash reward to the person who can show that putting an adverti… Read more »
This year is only the beginning. That was the essential message Tuesday from Yahoo’s head of video and original programming, Erin McPherson,… Read more »
Mike Lang has resigned as CEO of Miramax effective immediately, according to the film company. Lang, a former News Corp. (NSDQ: NWS) exec i… Read more »
While its relevance in the realm of traditional linear television is more questionable than ever, the CW’s youthful, digitally literate core… Read more »
Shows produced by Hulu will soon find their way onto traditional TV networks in the U.K. and elsewhere, thanks to a distribution deal betwee… Read more »
Say this about TV Everywhere — it’s not making the complicated world of TV video streaming any easier to figure out. On Tuesday, cable netw… Read more »
Madison Avenue’s upfront ad markets are the place where TV broadcasters and cable companies sell the bulk of their billions of dollars in co… Read more »
The rising popularity of streaming video services is causing a knock-on effect for companies serving ads around that content. And here’s ano… Read more »
