In July, roughly 38 million people watched a video on Hulu, which was more than the 34 million subscribers to Time Warner Cable, one of the nation’s largest MSOs, in that same month.
The statistics were reported by comScore, an Internet market research firm, which pointed out that cable companies such as Time Warner and Comcast still generate much more revenue than Hulu and are still much more important to the TV networks whose shows appear on both platforms.
(To calculate cable viewers, comScore multiplied the companies’ end-of-June video subscribers by 2.59, the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent stat for average persons per household.)
The report does not include figures on how long viewers watched a particular video on Hulu, but the numbers do indicate that Internet-based video sites like Hulu and YouTube are gaining traction with consumers of video content.
One of the turning points in television’s transition to the Internet began with the establishment of Hulu, which launched publicly March 12, 2008. It carries the programs of several networks and cable channels. An estimated one in four Internet viewers now watches the Hulu service, which uses Adobe’s Flash technology. Hulu is jointly owned by News Corp (FOX), NBC Universal and Disney (ABC).
