Hulu Battling Ad-Blocking Software
Jun 18th, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: Internet TV, Video 
Internet TV site Hulu is fighting back at users that use ad-blocking software, warning them that they need to disable the software.
“This program is brought to you by Hulu’s advertising partners,” notes the site. “If you see this message repeatedly, you may need to disable your ad blocking software.”
The video then resumes playing after 30 seconds.
Hulu may be kicking YouTube’s ass, but the site has a bigger problem than ad-blockers – their advertising implementation is terrible.
Here’s a few reasons why:
- Before you watch the show, you have to watch a pre-roll ad.
- The ads that you see are not intelligently inserted – you’ll end up watching the same ads over and over for things that you don’t care about. My “favorite” is the feminine hygiene product spam.
- The ads are too long. 30 seconds long enough to switch to another window and check your mail, encouraging people to multitask and ignore the intrusive ads.
Instead of fighting power users, Hulu would be better off working on:
- more intelligent ad targeting software;
- providing a feedback mechanism so that users could reject ads they don’t want to see; and
- cutting down on ad length to discourage multitasking.
They can’t even seem to figure out decade of birth or gender.
Generation Z is really shaking things the [bleep] up over at the [bleeping] BofA. No [bleeping] protection! yay!
And, Monistat may help with my female dryness. Thanks Hulu, I’ll be sure to ask my “doctor.”
How about just letting us pick the types of ads we want to see and remembering that with a cookie.
I’m might want to see ads about new gadgets, upcoming movies, but not about cars or medical stuff.
Man… people even complain when they’re given free hi-res videos to watch. 30 seconds is not too long when broadcast tv is about 2 minutes. Targeted ads make sense and I’m sure Hulu is interested in moving in that direction. Their first priority was to just sell the ad space. Targetted ads will become a reality when the # of views increase and they obtain more ad partners.
Don't need ads don't want ads. Anyone that says 30 is not bad is in advertising/marketing and/or has something to sell themselves.
Unfortunately, what the advertising world has accomplished with their non-stop, everywhere-in-your-face ads is just the opposite of their main goal. They have turned the public completely against ads in every form. We have been so overwhelmed with advertising in our magazines, newspapers, internet, TV, on buses and taxis, on billboards, in malls, and even in public bathrooms, that we now absolutely hate ads. A long time ago, TV ads were run only once during any 30-minute show, and it was only for only 30 seconds. Now, they are run for over three minutes four times during the show! So instead of a 30-minute program, you're actually only seeing an 18-minute show. The greed that has created this advertising glut will continue to try to outsmart us at every turn, unless we, the targeted public, let them know of our disgust. Start writing to the actual advertisers — let them know that their product will be the last thing we ever buy simply because of our anger over their total saturation of ads. When it hits their bottom line, they listen.