Think Hulu's going to suffer because it lost The Daily Show and The Colbert Report? Maybe, but it gained a whole new audience by adding more than 600 clips of NFL content--more than 400 hours worth--to its site this week.
Hulu, which comScore said slipped in videos served up to just over 900 million in January after cracking the 1 billion mark in December, may see March numbers rebound as a result of the new content deal with NFL Networks.
Some material began appearing in January, but the league and Hulu say they plan to have more than 1,000 hours of content online at Hulu by the start of the season, which is frighteningly just around the corner. Hulu's NFL page has episodes from shows including Game of the Week, Greatest Games, Hardknocks, Live Wire, Season in Review, Sounds of the Game, Super Bowl Highlight, Team Highlights and individual microsites for each of the leagues teams. It's a football junkies nirhana.
It's an interesting turn of events, after several years of cordoning off the clips on NFL.com.
"This is really the next step or phase in the development of our Internet business," said Hans Schroeder, vice president of NFL Digital Media. "The first phase was definitely built around a model of exclusivity, particularly with regard to game footage and highlights, but we're now out looking at strategic syndication opportunities and want to have more content in more places."
For more:
- see this portfolio.com article
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