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'Skinny bundle not so skinny;' Hulu adds Scripps, Turner, NBCU, Disney to new live TV package

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By Laurie Fullerton, Freelance Writer

May 4, 2017 | 3 min read

Hulu chose the Digital Content NewFronts – which the company was among its original founders – to unveil its new live TV service, promising consumers a way to cut their cable cord while continuing to receive premium TV channels.

With consumers receiving so many new choices where they can find television, Hulu ad sales SVP Peter Naylor told BeetTV that “we are a very attractive price point for people contemplating how they get their TV. For programmers, they want to be there and to be a part of our package so that represents growth for them.”

With the new service, at a price point of $39.99 per month, and increasing partnerships, the “skinny bundle isn’t so skinny,” Naylor said as he confirmed the latest partnership with Scripps, along with NBCU, 21st Century Fox, Walt Disney Company, CBS, A+E Networks and Turner.

“Handmaid's Tales is a week old; we are renewing it for season two,” Naylor said. “We have Jeff Daniels who will be the star of a new drama called ‘Moving Tower’ about the days leading up to 911; Sarah Silverman will be in a show this summer called 'I love you America' where she will have a unique take on what is going on in the country from her point of view," Naylor said. "There are a lot of fun shows and big talent behind and in front of the camera."

But, despite all this content and premium programming for a monthly subscription, Hulu is not jettisoning advertising as a monetization model. In fact, Naylor is keen to outline an advertiser offering that is beefed up with latest adtech.

“Like all the conventional MVPDs…we’re a digital MVPD, so I’ll get two minutes an hour in the cable opportunities,” Naylor adds. “We have a whole host of (advertising) opportunities salt-and-peppered throughout our cloud DVR, where we have inventory to bring to market. The new interface gives me a new opportunity to package up sponsorships as well.”

“We anticipate it will be dynamically-inserted ads, everything inserted through an IP address. We have so much information on our subscribers and viewers that we can tailor the ads for those two minutes in a way that’s household-addressable. We’re already doing it in our video-on-demand product.”

Hulu said in March that is was working with an SSP (supply-side platform) to offer automated solutions and to allow advertisers the opportunity to combine their data with its own to bring more effective targeting, integrating with a number of data providers.

This approach will give Hulu continuity across its on-demand offering, where dynamic ad insertion has been most prevalent in the industry, and live TV, which is ripe to start adopting the same kind of techniques.

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