In a bit of news that must be disturbing to cable operators, it seems that people who watch TV shows on the Web are willing to tolerate the occasional ad or two. That means that those nettlesome video sites like Hulu and the like could actually keep cable cord-cutters even if they start showing more ads--not as many as cable and broadcast, but more ads.
The news comes from comScore, a Web researcher, which released its findings at the Advertising Research Foundation's gathering in New York. The study found that while Hulu serves about four minutes of ads for every hour of content, viewers would accept six or seven.
There was some good news for cable, however. comScore's research also showed that just 6 percent of Web video viewers have cut--or never had--a cable cord. Most people, it said, watch Web for the convenience and to pick up the plotlines of shows they recently missed, not to avoid paying a monthly cable bill.
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