More Ads Coming to Hulu

Before Hulu gets sold, viewers of the ad-supported on demand streaming video destination for premium movies and television and web series may have to watch more ads while viewing those movies and television and web series.

Andrew Wallenstein at Variety reported earlier this week Fox and Hulu made a “handshake deal” that will renew the network television’s licensing contract with the online video service, but also increase the number of ads Hulu delivers against Fox content. Andy Fixmer at Bloomberg wrote today ABC and Hulu came to a similar agreement. The handshakes will reportedly be turned into signed contracts within the next few weeks. That means viewers should expect to see an increase in the minutes of ads they watch across shows like Family Guy and Modern Family within the next couple months.

Fixmer notes in his article a “Modern Family

episode on Hulu includes about 2.5 minutes of ads. On a broadcast network, commercial time totals about 8 minutes per half hour.”

Hulu already delivers significantly more online video ads than any other video aggregator, destination, network, or publisher. The site streamed over 1.3 billion online video ads in the month of May alone, with an average of 47.6 ads per viewer and one video ad watched for every four minutes and 35 seconds of content.

In studies conducted by Turner Broadcasting and CW late last year, both media companies came to the conclusion that online video viewers would be willing to tolerate significantly more online advertising. Hulu may soon find out if they were right.