Hulu Hopes to Join Social TV Movement with New Facebook App
By Rob Scott
September 26, 2011
September 26, 2011
- Hulu has proven successful with providing TV content online (the service is second only to YouTube in terms of viewer engagement), but the video platform has yet to effectively break into practical social offerings. That may change with its new Facebook app, which strives to make the Hulu experience more social.
- The new app will enable viewing of content directly within Facebook, will allow you to see what your friends are watching (with approval), and will provide options for having conversations about shows and leaving comments.
- “The coolest part? As you’re watching Hulu content, be it a full show, clip, or film, you can leave comments on particular moments within the video. Oh yes. SoundCloud-style,” reports TechCrunch. “And, naturally, once you leave a comment on a particular moment, you can then blast it out to friends to let them know how clever you are — on both Hulu and Facebook.”
- Hulu Plus users can access their entire library in Facebook. And you can elect not to share what you watch with friends, via the share settings or privacy settings on Hulu or Facebook.
- TechCrunch is enthusiastic about the app: “We welcome you, Hulubook. Facebulu.”
4 Comments
Big for Hulu, and maybe for Netflix, but most of my own TV consumption is still done via payTV, and old folks like me may continue to pay out large subscription fees to our cable TV providers, as long as they give me TV Everywhere and more personalized content curation. Within that context, I think that Facebook may overtake Twitter as a conversation tool for Social TV, but I am not convinced it will be the platform for my content discovery and navigation, much less consumption. That said, the changes they announced will allow services to incorporate sharing, conversation, and community elements within an overall TV experience, so that I can be on my iPad looking for something to watch on cable, and see what my friends are saying about it. We’ve been expecting Twitter to be the universal tool for TV commenting, and Facebook’s changes I think make it a player now.
Big for Hulu, and maybe for Netflix, but most of my own TV consumption is still done via payTV, and old folks like me may continue to pay out large subscription fees to our cable TV providers, as long as they give me TV Everywhere and more personalized content curation. Within that context, I think that Facebook may overtake Twitter as a conversation tool for Social TV, but I am not convinced it will be the platform for my content discovery and navigation, much less consumption. That said, the changes they announced will allow services to incorporate sharing, conversation, and community elements within an overall TV experience, so that I can be on my iPad looking for something to watch on cable, and see what my friends are saying about it. We’ve been expecting Twitter to be the universal tool for TV commenting, and Facebook’s changes I think make it a player now.
I agree 100%…this is bad for Twitter and potentially very good for Social TV services outside of FB.
I agree 100%…this is bad for Twitter and potentially very good for Social TV services outside of FB.
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