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Hulu still a baby, but posting grown-up stats

October 29, 2008 — 4:09pm ET | By Pete Wylie

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Hulu has made it through its first year and even the most bullish execs at NewsCorp and NBC Universal might not have thought the site would have reached its present size or attained its present success so soon. The site, which formally started its private beta testing one year ago today, has exploded in popularity, rising from 1.7 million streams per month before opening to the public, to 142 million streams this September, according to NielsenOnline figures.

In the launch release, Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation said of Hulu, "This is a game changer for Internet video. We'll have access to just about the entire U.S. Internet audience at launch."

While Hulu certainly had access to the entire Internet audience at launch, it certainly didn't reach or win them over immediately. Bloggers, analysts and pundits all derided Hulu as a better-late-than-never entry into the online video market, doomed for failure due to its ad-reliant repackaging of network TV content.

But now Hulu staff and supporters (first and foremost Providnece Equity Partners, who sunk $100 million into Hulu in Oct. 2007) have cause to celebrate one of the biggest online video success stories of 2008.

While Hulu is not yet profitable, its rapid gain in viewership should soon translate to a positive balance sheet, and a recent Insight Express survey Hulu commissioned shows many positive signs for growth in audience and revenue through 2009. Millions of Hulu users are content with watching the ads streamed along with their desired content: 93 percent of nearly 18,000 viewers surveyed said that the site had the right amount of ads for free content.

Hulu advertisers are getting better than average ROI: The survey found users who viewed ads on Hulu demonstrated a 22 percent increase in advertiser message association and a 28 percent jump in intent to purchase.

Plus, Hulu has increased its advertising partnerships from 10 to 100 since launch, according to a wired.com blog post. At this rate, Hulu should grow to a ripe old age.

For more:
- see the wired.com blog post here