The 2012 Super Bowl has come and gone, while you’re left to clean up the beer cans, wash off that face paint, and get back to planning your next pivot. The game itself provided more than enough excitement, with the New York Football Giants eking out a win over the star-crossed Tom Bradys and Bill Belichicks. This year’s Big Game also marked the first time that a Super Bowl was streamed live, legally, and for free on the Interwebs. While online viewers met with a number of shortcomings, the streaming was — for the most part — a success. (Read our review here.)

The Super Bowl also proved to yet again be the catalyst of rabid activity on social media channels, especially Twitter, which, at its most active, saw more than 10,000 tweets per second. A record for sporting events (even though this record seems to be broken every three months.)

While some watch the Super Bowl for their love of a good game of pigskin, others flip on the game for the halftime entertainment or the slew of “creative” commercials airing for the first time in front of a ready-made audience of millions.

The ad content this year left much to be desired (in my humble opinion), though there were some highlights, like an appearance by some faces familiar to the tech industry, thanks to Best Buy’s spotlighting of a few mobile innovators, among them Philippe Kahn, Ray Kurzweil, Instagram Founder Kevin Systrom, and the guys behind Shazam, and Words With Friends, and so on.

Of course, in the wrap up of every Super Bowl, the people want to get a taste of which commercials were the most popular. This morning Hulu released its list of winners, and it looks like nostalgia took the blue ribbon. Of the ads that ran during game time, Honda’s “Matthew’s Day Off” (a Ferris Bueller tribute) just narrowly edged out Volkswagen’s “The Dog Strikes Back,” with the “most liked” ad on Hulu AdZone being Volkswagen’s “The Bark Side” preview ad.

Below, you can find the top results across categories, including “Overall Most Liked Ads” and “Funniest Ads.” For more of Hulu’s categories, check out their release here.

Overall Most Liked Ads

1. Volkswagen: The Bark Side Teaser
2. Honda: Matthew’s Day Off — Extended
3. Volkswagen: The Dog Strikes Back
4. Skechers: GOrun Mr. Quiggly
5. Dannon Oikos: The Tease
6. Chevrolet: 2012
7. M&M’s: It’s That Kind of Party
8. Audi: Vampire Party
9. E*Trade: Fatherhood
10. Acura: Transactions — Extended

Funniest Ads

1. Acura: Transactions
2. Hulu Plus: Hulubratory
3. Chevrolet: Happy Grad
4. Honda: Matthew’s Day Off
5. Chevrolet: 2012

Of course, Hulu is not the only service/company to track this year’s most popular commercials. This morning, TiVo also shared it’s commercial results, which is of note as it claims to be the “only second-by-second audience research service to rank the top ten commercials based on actual commercial retention and viewership” relative to the Super Bowl’s viewership numbers. Interestingly, while many brands like to preview or tease their ads days before the Super Bowl actually airs, the top three did not preview their commercials online before the big game. Take that, Internet?

Though it may not come as a surprise, it’s disappointing not to see many tech companies (or tech-related ads) in either of these top ten lists, with the exception of Hulu and E*Trade. It seems that the Super Bowl came and went without the same controversy (or negative reaction) stirred up by GoDaddy, Salesforce.com, and Groupon last year, the former two ranking high in the “Most Disliked” category last year.

But, without further ado, here are the top ten according to TiVo:

1. Doritos: “Man’s Best Friend”
2. M&Ms: “Ms. Brown”
3. Doritos: “Sling Baby”
4. Pepsi: “King’s Court”
5. Volkswagen: “The Dog Strikes Back”
6. NFL New Fantasy Game: “Win a Million Bucks”
7. Acura NSX: “Seinfeld”
8. FIAT 500: “Supermodel”
9. Chevy Camaro: “Happy Grad”
10. E*Trade Baby: “Fatherhood”

What do you think? Weigh in with your favorites.

Addendum: For those paying attention, Yottaa has done a wrap up of all the which sites went down during the Super Bowl ad blitz. Coke took a hit, as did Acura and Act of Valor. Check out their blog post here.

Hulu is launching its first-ever original scripted series with its 13-episode order of Battleground, a political comedy following the campaign trail of a third-place candidate in Wisconsin angling for a seat in the Senate.

The show is kicking off Hulu’s foray into scripted programming, and will be followed by two other original shows: a second season of documentarian Morgan Spurlock’s A Day in the Life series, and Up to Speed, a travel show from Dazed and Confused director Richard Linklater.

Battleground will debut on February 14th, Hulu says, and will be available to all users of Hulu’s free service and its paying customers on the premium version. The company also told Bloomberg that it’s planning to raise money to fund further expansion into original shows. According to Andy Forssell, Hulu’s Chief Content Officer, the company has a “very healthy business.”

“When you have a healthy business, capital is not a problem. There are plenty of people who want to help,” he said.

The “healthy business” he’s referring to can be seen in Hulu’s recently released subscriber numbers and sales figures. Last week, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar spoke of how the business grew more than 60% in 2010 to approximately $420 million in revenue and now has over 1.5 million subscribers. 1.1 million of those customers were added over the course of the past year. That’s good news for Hulu. But then again, compare that with Netflix, which was growing at a rate of 1 million subscribers per quarter (or more), prior to the pricing debacle. It’s clear that it’s going to take more than just network TV to give Hulu an edge. Original programming may be just what it needs.

Today’s announcement of Hulu’s first scripted series comes on the heels of Netflix’s preparations to launch its first original series, a “fish out of water” tale from Steven Van Zandt called Lilyhammer. Both shows will debut in February.

This is the start of a growing trend towards original web programming. In addition to Netflix’s Lilyhammer, Tom Hanks is making a cartoon TV series for Yahoo. There’s also House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, which will also appear on Netflix, along with other original shows (it is also resurrecting Arrested Development, much to audience’s delight.).

For content creators, these efforts could lead them to entirely new ways to have their work seen, even if they don’t (yet) reach all of the 115.9 million mainstream TV consumers. Fox, for example, passed on Battleground before it found a home on Hulu. There’s more content out there than there are network time slots. If Netflix, Hulu and others want to move into original programming, it’s there for the taking.

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar just posted a recap of the online content business in 2011, and revealed that Hulu’s revenue grew 60% from 2010 to approximately $420 million. While the growth is a good sign, this is less that the $500 million expected for the year.

Kilar says that Hulu Plus now has more than 1.5 million paying subscribers and is attracting more than 2 times the number of subscribers each day when compared to this time last year. Hulu continues to expect that its subscription services will account for more than half of Hulu’s overall business later this year.

In terms of content, Hulu’s content grew approximately 40% vs 2010 and Hulu Plus’ content offering grew more than 105%. Hulu Plus is the only online video subscription service that offers current season content from 5 of the 6 largest U.S. broadcast networks. As we’ve written in the past, part of the value of Hulu is in the content deals it has with its owners to stream new NBC, Fox, and ABC television series over the Internet.

Overall, He wrote that the Hulu ad business “grew aggressively” during the year, despite the declining economy and soft ad market in the last half of 2011. As a whole, Kilar is optimistic and “bullish” on the company’s 2012 growth. The company plans to invest approximately $500 million in content in 2012 (though it’s unclear where all of this money will come from).

Not mentioned in the note were the reports that Hulu was shopping itself around for an acquisition last year, and got offers from Google, Dish Networks, and Amazon. The company ended these talks in October.

For basis of comparison, Netflix did $822 million in revenue last quarter. Basically, Netflix does nearly twice as much revenue in one quarter as Hulu does in a year.

Hulu does TV shows better than just about everyone. In fact, other than YouTube, Hulu attracts the highest level of engagement of any web video platform (with the average web viewer watching an average of 3.2 hours a month). That being said, Hulu has never done social particularly well. Sure, users interact on Hulu discussion boards, tweet clips to friends, and share shows on Facebook, but the platform has long been in need of a better way to find and share TV shows and movies.

So, today at F8, Hulu announced the launch of a brand new Facebook app, which endeavors to make the Hulu experience social. How exactly? For Hulu users this means getting to watch the video platform’s content directly within Facebook. Now you no longer have to leave Facebook to watch Hulu. And judging by all the news out of F8 today, soon you’ll never have to leave Facebook, period.

The videos you watch on Hulu are automatically shared with friends (approval is needed, thankfully). What’s more, according to Hulu’s blog entry today, the Facehulu app will give you a comprehensive glimpse into what your friends are watching, in realtime, and allow viewers to spark conversations with each other about what shows they’re watching and how bad the new season of House is.

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. 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.

And for those zealous Hulu Plussers out there, you will be happy to know that the new Facebook app will give you access to your entire H+ library on Facebook, and discuss, comment and share in the same way the unwashed regular Hulu subscribers do. And, for all Hulu users, an important thing to remember: You can change your share settings at any time by clicking on the “share to feed” icon and selecting “Hulu and Facebook” or “No One. Do not share what I watch.” (Or you can go to Facebook or Hulu’s privacy settings.)

We welcome you, Hulubook. Facebulu.

<a href="“>Check it out for yourself here.

Hulu Plus has found its way to a handful of Android devices these past few months, but today it makes its first official appearance on an Android tablet — just maybe not the one you were expecting.

Forget about the Motorola Xoom or the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Hulu Plus is making its tablet debut on the cost-conscious Vizio Tablet. It has to be something of a coup for the budget OEM, but it certainly fits in with the tablet’s focus on media and connectivity: it packs three speakers to pump out the jams and a universal remote app to take control of compatible home theater systems.

As fortunate as Vizio is to land the $7.99/month service, the decision may have been made at least partially to account for the ease of execution. Unlike the rivals listed above, the 8-inch Vizio tablet runs Android 2.3 (a.k.a Gingerbread) instead of Honeycomb, which puts it closer in app compatibility to handsets than its tablet brethren. The Hulu Plus app team would have had spend a few extra man-hours to make the app Honeycomb-ready, but not so with the Vizio tablet.

Still, easier execution or not, the addition of Hulu Plus will make the whole package more palatable to the media-crazed. Current owners can download Hulu Plus now from the Android Market, and newly interested parties can pick up a tablet for a shade under $300.

A week ago, Fox changed its licensing rules so that non-paying users of Hulu would be unable to watch new episodes of their shows until eight days after their air date. Put on your analyst hat and think about what effect this might have on, say, piracy of those shows. Did you determine that it would increase piracy? Congratulations, you are a better judge of consequences than Fox. Because piracy of Fox shows went up by a huge amount during this last week.

Actually, it’s likely that Fox anticipated this increase in piracy and simply considered it worth the trade-off. With worse options for free users, more will watch the live broadcast, they suppose, and ad prices go up with these increased projections. Query: if these people could watch it on live TV, why would they be watching it on Hulu in the first place?

For busy and budget-conscious TV-watchers, expensive cable and a DVR aren’t an option. Hulu is. Hulu gets shows out there, allows for targeted, relatively unskippable advertising, and with a reasonable one-day delay, doesn’t add much inconvenience to the bargain for the user. This eight-day delay is punishing, and while “getting something for nothing” is a rather new entitlement we all seem to have, it does feel like a bait-and-switch for millions of viewers.

So what do they do? They google “download ______”, and halfway down the first page is a public, well-seeded torrent that downloads the whole episode — with no ads — in minutes, and allows them to use their favorite media player or take it with them anywhere. Wow! What a great way to watch your favorite shows!

TorrentFreak tracked the piracy of two Fox shows after the delay went into effect. Hell’s Kitchen downloads went up by 114%, and MasterChef went up a massive 189%. That number will only go up as more people discover the limitation.

Will Fox backpedal? Not likely. But Hulu is a work in progress, and the cards change hands rapidly in this business. What seems like a good deal to Fox now, improving their broadcast relationships, might turn out to be a ball and chain a year from now as the practicality of cord-cutting grows.

Sometimes companies have to do things that their customers don’t like. Raise rates, for instance. Ugly but inevitable. But making decisions plainly detrimental to your customer experience for mysterious reasons will have repercussions. In this case, they just lost thousands upon thousands of loyal viewers who enjoyed their products, many of whom consider themselves abused and will never return.

Premium video streaming site Hulu has just announced that it’s about to make its first international expansion: Japan.

Hulu is keeping mum on the details, but it sounds like it will only offer a premium subscription service (the US version of Hulu offers both premium and free content). The company now has an office in Tokyo and is working on preparing for launch “later this year” (again, no more details on that front).

From the blog post:

We are excited about entering Japan right now for a number of reasons. For one thing, Nihon wa subarashii kuni desu (“Japan is a wonderful country”). Japanese audiences are passionate about premium video content, and the country is a major producer of world-class TV and feature films (Japanese content has played an important part of Hulu’s content lineup in the United States for a long time already). In Japan, we also see an unfulfilled market need with respect to premium feature film and TV content, and very favorable environmental factors to a service like ours, including extensive broadband penetration, smart phone and other internet-connected device ubiquity, and strong consumer interest. We have been able to use what we have learned from Hulu and Hulu Plus, in addition to the insights gleaned from our market research, to design a high value product specifically tailored for Japanese customers.

Hulu has established itself in the United States as a prime destination for watching the latest television shows (and, increasingly, movies) featuring content like The Daily Show and The Office. It launched Hulu Plus in June 2010, which is a premium subscription version of the site that costs $7.99 and offers more content across more devices, including the iPad and Xbox 360.

It is also hampered by the frustrating restrictions of content owners, who enjoy making their content available for arbitrary time periods and then removing it. Not that it’s ever burned me.

Editor’s note: The following guest post was written by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, founder and CEO of WatchMojo.

While Yahoo! remains the best positioned digital media company around, Wall Street remains unconvinced.

Yahoo!’s revenues are not growing as fast as other online media companies (GOOG, AMZN, Facebook, etc).  Moreover, between Facebook’s grip on display ad inventory and DSPs changing the way advertisers buy inventory, Yahoo’s core business (display, reach) is under threat.

If that weren’t enough, the Alibaba/Alipay situation illustrates that it’s only a matter of time before investors, analysts and the media force Yahoo! to shed its Asian assets. Once the company unloads those assets, the cash on its balance sheet will soar, but its enterprise value (market cap + debt – cash) will plummet.

Block and Tackle, but Look for Hail Marry as Well

As Yahoo! plays catch up investing in video . . .  it might realize that it needs to make some tuck-in acquisitions and consider throwing a hail marry, too.

Post Asian asset sales, Yahoo! will find itself with:

• lots of cash on its balance sheet
• a lower enterprise valu
• tepid revenues
• growing threats
• an opportunity to grow in video.

Yahoo! will be able to use some of the cash on its books to acquire Hulu to compete with Netflix, Google/YouTube and Amazon more effectively.  Otherwise, the status quo means a company that will become gobbled by one of the larger companies out there.  Not a bad fate in of itself, but not a fate it needs to back itself into either.  Yahoo! can also be taken out by a private equity firm, something that I’ve long argued would have its share of benefits.

Content is a Woman, Distribution is a Man

I’ve cut hundreds of deals with distribution companies.  The conclusion I’ve reached is that—for lack of a better analogy—Content is a woman, Distribution is a man.  In other words, historically distribution companies

• make no commitments,
• never make any promises,
• have no-strings-attached offerings,
• rarely seek exclusivity, and
• when they do, it’s usually too good to be true.

Content owners, meanwhile,

• enter distribution deals with expectations,
• believe the promises they hear,
• expect a commitment, and
• want a guarantee.

As a man, I can’t help but admit that in the end, women prevail and men have to come around if we want to play along.

As a content owner, it’s reassuring to know that.

Is Hulu a Content or Distribution Company?

In case you’re asking: is Hulu a content or distribution company, well, it’s a hybrid.  Technically it’s a distribution company but its pedigree is content (via its owners).  If someone buys them and gets exclusive rights, it becomes more of a content play than a distribution or tech play.  The reality is that to most buyers its traffic and technology are worth less than its content rights, especially if those rights become exclusive.

Welcome to an Era of Exclusivity

Meanwhile, I expect Facebook to move away from being a pure-play platform and move further into becoming a media company striking content deals, including exclusive content rights and content acquisition deals (learning from Google/YouTube’s early missteps and trying to jump some steps and save time to justify its $70 billion market cap despite relatively low revenue figures).

Lost in the recent “will Hulu sell?” talk is “why would Hulu’s owners want to sell?”  Its owners are of course some of the largest traditional media companies (TMCs) including News Corp., Disney and Comcast (via NBC Universal).

Hulu raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation.  It’s unclear if the consortium of media companies and the private equity firm Providence share a vision for the exit, or end game.  Even if Hulu’s value has risen since that deal, the increased value on the TMCs’ balance sheets means little to media companies.  Moreover, Providence realizes that without the rights to the content, no buyer would take a stab at Hulu.

The Mother of All Pivots?

So a company like Yahoo! will be tempted to “pivot” its plodding aircraft carrier and acquire Hulu and then use the cash left from the Asian assets (net of the $1-2B rumored to buy Hulu) to then fork over licensing fees to the media companies as a carrot to lock in rights—dare we say exclusive rights—for years to come.

As much as some pushed the “non-exclusive” and “hyper-distribution” mantra, those are dead in the water.  The web will “regress to the mean” of media and advertising and see more and more exclusive deals.  Those are the kind of deals that make television a $70 billion advertising industry and $250 billion ecosystem including other revenue streams.

Hulu’s Strategic Options

This begs the question: what about an IPO?  If Hulu goes public at a valuation of $1-2B and sells 10-50% to the public it will only generate a few hundred million dollars; not nearly enough to be used to pay off the big media companies that now own Hulu in licensing fees.  Combined with Hulu’s low margins, this means an IPO won’t maximize Hulu’s value, which means the big media companies won’t have an incentive to pursue the IPO path.

Of course, Hulu’s current investors could sell some shares in the IPO, or  hold onto their stakes and sell later in a secondary offering in the hopes that the valuation goes higher if they continue to improve the content they give Hulu and/or increase revenue.  But, let’s be realistic here, media companies are risk-averse and realize that if they can sell Hulu, give up some exclusive content in the process and concurrently lock in a decent annuity that is more than a positive outcome for what was once labeled Clown Corp. by an influential blog a few years ago.  This is all even more pertinent considering that the cloud overhanging Hulu’s content licensing terms and profit margins will remain risk factors in its prospectus.

However, Hulu in the hands of someone like MSFT/YHOO/GOOG would be able to pay the TMCs hundreds of millions of dollars per year in licensing fees.  While a ballooning value on paper and increasing goodwill on their balance sheet does little to move the needle for the TMCs, hundreds of millions of dollars in annuities on their income statement will.

Combine this with the facts that:

• Google/YouTube is eager to use $100 million (if not much more over time) to offer Fortune 500 marketers the kind of content they’re used to advertising alongside,
• Facebook is armed to the teeth with hundreds of millions in cash from operations and the sale of stock to DST, Goldman, etc., and increasingly eyeing content,
• Netflix is opening its wallet to TMCs for content,

then you can imagine that Yahoo! realizes it needs a new playbook and the TMCs want to create more competition for their content.

As it turns out, Sumner Redstone was dead right: with new distribution channels the value of content rises.  While content and distribution are equally important and one without the other is worthless, suddenly content companies will find themselves in a landscape of heightened competition which will see the value of their content rise.

Disclaimer: YouTube, Hulu, Yahoo! are all WatchMojo’s distribution partners.

If you’re one of the Internet’s many denizens still shedding an oh-so-first-world-problem tear over Netflix’s business strategy overhaul pricing changes, you’re probably still looking for somewhere else to spend your two lattes worth of monthly fees in exchange for countless hours of entertainment. Hulu Plus, perhaps?

If you’re an Android user, chances are pretty decent that Hulu Plus just got a lot more useful for you; this morning, Hulu is announcing streaming support for four of the most popular Android devices around.

The new devices getting Hulu Plus this morning:

• Sprint Evo 4G
• T-Mobile G2
• T-Mobile myTouch 4G
• Verizon Thunderbolt

This update brings the Hulu’s Android stable up to 10 devices, with the Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X, and the Motorola Atrix having been supported from the get go. The lack of support for certain popular handsets — namely, the Evo 4G and the super-trendy Thunderbolt — surprised the heck out of us at launch, so this is a welcome update.

Of course, Hulu Plus isn’t really much of a substitute for Netflix. Sure, you might be able to watch Family Guy or The Daily Show (depending on what sort of mood Viacom is in), but only on Netflix can you find such gems as White Chicks or Alive! Is Michael Jackson Really Dead?.

A new study by Yahoo (embedded below) shows that online video watching habits are shifting. People are watching longer videos and watching more at night during primetime. The chart above shows when people watch videos online. The blue line is today (2011) and the dotted line is two years ago (2009). The two lines show more than a 30 percent divergence during primetime.

So what changed? Peak online video viewing today is during prime time, between 6 PM and 9 PM. Only two years ago, prime time showed the biggest dip in online video viewing as people turned off their computers and turned on their TVs. But now, more people are streaming TV shows and movies from services like Netflix and Hulu, and they tend to watch those videos during the same time period they previously watched regular TV. While people may not yet be cord cutting, this data suggests that online watching does encroach upon regular cable and satellite TV watching.

Not surprisingly, people are watching longer form videos online (see chart below). Today, 18 percent of online videos watched are full length TV shows, versus 11 percent two years ago. And 8 percent are full-length movies, up from 5 percent in 2009. Meanwhile, the percentage of overall video content made up of short clips watched online declined by 10 points from 84 percent to 74 percent.

Some other interesting stats:

• A smaller percentage of people are sharing videos, 26 percent versus 34 percent in 2009. This may be due to older people watching online videos, and sharing less.
• Advertiser recall is better with ads on professionally produced videos (45 percent) than on videos “made by people like me” (36 percent).
• Videos online are more likely to be watched when shown in the context of an article, with 57 percent of people saying they enjoy the video + article combo.

Tired of not being able to get your on-the-go Modern Family fix from Hulu just because you’re rockin’ an Android phone rather than an iPhone?

Fret no longer! Hulu Plus for Android has arrived. Sort of.

As is par for the course with video streaming apps on Android these days, Hulu Plus for Android is starting its life on… a very select bunch of handsets. Of the many dozens of Android devices floating around out there, Hulu Plus will initially support six: Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X, and the Motorola Atrix.

Hulu says that “additional devices will be announced throughout the year” — but unless you’re sporting one of the more popular US handsets (like, say, the EVO 4G or the Droid Charge), I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

Yahoo hasn’t had any meaningful conversations with Hulu about a buyout, says this source. The source added that Hulu is actively looking for a buyer and has hired Morgan Stanley to represent them.

Like I said, this is all I’ve got right now. The WSJ and the LA Times say they have sources confirming that Yahoo made an offer. With big acquisitions the press is a huge pawn in negotiating strategy. The one thing I’d like to know is who’s the source for the LA Times article. If that source is close to Hulu or Morgan Stanley, I’d be wary. Of course, my source has her own agenda, too.

Two weeks after Miramax announced a major content deal with Netflix, the studio this morning announced that it has also struck a multi-year agreement with Hulu to bring hundreds of films, including Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Scream and The English Patient to Hulu Plus subscribers. Hulu will offer select films via the advertising-supported Hulu.com service to boot.

Launching today, Hulu Plus subscribers will be able to watch Miramax movies in HD (when available), with no advertising interruption.

Additionally, Hulu says it will “soon” rotate a selection of approximately 15 Miramax films each month through Hulu.com with ad breaks, marking the first time Miramax titles have become available through an advertising-supported streaming service.

Miramax currently boasts a library of more than 700 motion pictures.

We happy? Yeah, we happy.

At the end of last year, Miramax announced that Michael (Mike) Lang had joined the studio has chief executive officer. I mention this because Lang was previously EVP, Business Development and Strategy at Fox, where he played an instrumental role in Hulu’s creation.

The service is launching tomorrow and you’re basically getting the Hulu interface with which you’re familiar plus a few Kinect add-ons including voice control and gestures. With sufficient bandwidth you also get high-quality streaming on what Microsoft is calling the “biggest screen in your house.” The service will be available for free from April 29 – May 6 and will thereafter cost $7.99 a month.

Click through for more info on the service, including some words about Kintect interaction.

By the end of this year, an estimated 2 million households in the U.S. will have abandoned TV for the Web, cutting the cord with their cable companies. This estimate comes from Convergence Consulting Group, a Toronto-based research firm with a new report on The Battle for the American Couch Potato. That 2 million is up from the 1.6 million it was estimating a year ago, but it is still rather small and the number of cord cutters may very well have peaked last year as cable companies begin to fight back with TV Everywhere offerings.

Nevertheless, the big beneficiaries of cord cutting are Netflix, Hulu, and Apple TV.  They benefit even if people keep their cable but add Internet TV streaming or downloads to their viewing repertoire, as is much more common. According to Convergence , 18 percent of viewers in the U.S. watched free, full episodes of TV on the Web last year, and that is growing by a percentage point every year:

Estimated Percentage of Average Weekly US Viewers That Watch Free Broadcast and Cable Network Online Full Episodes, 2009-2012

2009—16%
2010—18%
2011—19%
2012—20%

Streaming has helped Netflix in particular in terms of driving new subscriber growth, and it is also arguably a gateway drug to cord cutting.  Convergence estimates that Netflix revenues from online-only subscribers in the U.S. will grow from $172 million this year to $578 million in 2013.  And if you add in Hulu Plus, the combined streaming revenues from both companies will reach an estimated $800 million in two years.

Netflix may be paying up to be able to stream TV shows and movies left and right, but it is still paying only a fraction of what the cable companies shell out for programming. For instance, Convergence says that this year Netflix will double the amount it is estimated to pay for programming to $1.1 billion, while Apple will pay about $450 million, and all the other online providers will pay almost $400 million. Not quite $2 billion total from the Interent for TV and movie programming rights. Meanwhile, traditional TV access providers are expected to pay $38.7 billion for programming.

On a per subscriber basis, last year Netflix only paid one tenth the amount for programming ($34/subscriber) as did cable and satellite TV providers ($359/subscriber).  As a percentage of revenues, it is approaching what TV access providers pay for content.  Last year it was 25 percent of revenue going towards content, and this year it will be an estimated 39 percent, versus 42 percent for cable companies (and 70 percent for Apple TV).  But the absolute gap will remain massive for the foreseeable future.

Photo credit: Flickr/Schmilblick

ComScore has just released data from its Video Metrix service, showing that 170 million Internet users in the United States watched online video content in February for an average of 13.6 hours per viewer.

According to the audience measurement giant, the total U.S. Internet audience engaged in more than 5 billion viewing sessions during the course of last month.

Google Sites (read: YouTube) again ranked as the top online video content property in February, with an impressive 141.1 million unique viewers.

Microsoft notably surged from the seventh to the second place in the ranking with 48.8 million viewers. It was followed by Yahoo and Facebook, who both logged 46.7 million viewers. VEVO ranked fifth with a decent 45.9 million viewers.

Hulu only came in ninth with 27.3 million viewers in February, but according to comScore did generate the highest number of video ad impressions (more than 1.1 billion).

Looking at the top online video content properties last month, Google attracted as many viewers as the three challengers that make up the rest of the top 4 of the ranking, combined.

According to comScore, Google Sites also boasted the highest number of viewing sessions with 1.8 billion, and average time spent per viewer at 262 minutes (or 4.4 hours).

In a new report on digital trends in 2010

When it comes to premium video on the Web, Hulu still rules. In the fourth quarter, the U.S. online audience watched 19.4 billin minutes of video on Hulu, which was twice as much as the how much viewers watched on the websites of the five major TV networks combined. Viewers watched another 9.7 billion minutes of online video on the websites of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW. The chart above comes from a new Digital Year in Review report from comScore.

While Hulu still dominates, the individual network sites are growing faster. They grew 82 percent in terms of time spent watching video online, compared to 17 percent growth for Hulu. Taken together, Hulu and the five top networks, saw 33 percent growth in minutes viewed.

Hulu has a love-hate relationship with the TV networks. They realize Hulu is a better distribution channel than their individual sites (people want to find all their shows in one place), but they also don’t want to cede their audiences to Hulu. This tension leads to constant negotiations with the networks and attempts by Hulu to move to a subscription model, at least on new platforms like the iPad.

But as the chart above shows, Hulu isn’t going to be displaced anytime soon. Maybe that is why Viacom recently brought back Colbert and The Daily Show

Question is: did people dig them? Not really, says Hulu, which had its users cast votes on their favorite commercials across all 69 Super Bowl ads on its AdZone site.

Ads from technology companies were nowhere to be seen, save from one category: ‘Overall Most Disliked Ads’. Salesforce makes up 2/3 of that particular top 3, which I guess is also an achievement. Go Daddy‘s “The Contract” rounded out the list of most disliked commercials.

The ‘most liked’ category was led by Volkswagen’s “The Force,” edging out Bridgestone’s “Carma.” Number 3 was Volkswagen’s “Black Beetle”.

We give you the top three most disliked Super Bowl ads on Hulu:

1) Salesforce: Chatter.com Launch: Still Doing Impossible Things

2) Salesforce: Chatter.com Launch: Do Impossible Things

3) Go Daddy: The Contract

The deal also includes other TV Shows from Viacom’s media networks, including Comedy Central, MTV, BET, VH1, Spike TV, and TV Land to the Hulu Plus subscription service. Viacom had previously pulled the two Comedy Central shows from Hulu last March. Financial terms of the new agreement were not disclosed.

From the release: Under the agreement, current full episodes and clips of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” will be available on the free ad-supported Hulu.com service and through the Hulu Plus subscription service beginning February 2, 2011. In addition, Viacom will make available to Hulu Plus subscribers a selection of current programs, like Jersey Shore, Tosh.0, Teen Mom 2, Manswers, Let’s Stay Together, and Hot in Cleveland 21 days after they air. Viacom content availability on Hulu Plus will vary on a show-by-show basis.

This is a big deal for Hulu. Even when Hulu first convinced Viacom to distribute Colbert and The Daily Show back in June 2008, it was a major milestone for the then young video service. Viacom subsequently pulled the content, deciding that they needed Colbert and Jon Stewart more than they needed Hulu, especially since Vicacom wasn’t really monetizing the content on Hulu.

But with Hulu’s subscription plans and massive advertising, Viacom sees the potential for pulling in revenue now that Hulu is pulling in hundreds of millions in revenue. Hulu’s subscriber count is expected to pass 1 million this year and Hulu Plus as a business will have a revenue run rate north of $200 million this year. And Hulu now has 30 million monthly users, traffic which Viacom simply cannot ignore. Clearly, there must be some sort of revenue share but neither company is revealing the terms.

Of course, Viacom has not brought CBS’ content to Hulu. Yet. Perhaps the media giant is testing the waters before bringing all of its television content to the platform

But with Viacom putting its content back into Hulu, this shows that big media companies have confidence in the platform once again. And this is surely going to help Hulu’s planned IPO in 2011.

For Hulu CEO Jason Kilar’s take on the new partnership, check out his post on here.

As my daughter used to say in pre-school, let me undersplain something to one such victim, Microsoft. When you send out your troops to tell enterprises why the iPad sucks, be very careful to not include facts about Windows machines as proof of anything. As a longtime resident of OS/X, I have no use for Windows machines generally. But specifically, nothing about Microsoft-based products comes close to the worst aspects of the iPad circa Version 1.

You know the list: Flash, no Office, etc. These are features of the iPad, not problems. Investing in Flash is like putting money into a parking meter with a one-hour limit. After you reach the limit, the money goes in and doesn’t count for anything. Plus you can’t get it out. Office creates documents that require email to scatter unevenly across disorganized cc and forward silos where the resulting cloud of authority mangles both management and employee incentives. Etc. is everything else you might want to do on the iPad that Windows machines can do but don’t want to because it destabilizes legacy Microsoft revenue streams.

This last point is why comparing a shipping viral product to a non-existent OS-orphaned one is so absurd. But Microsoft is not stupid; they must think they can stall long enough to change the subject again. Which leads to the next surprising iOS data — Netflix streaming via Apple TV passing iPad streams. Actually, it’s intuitive if you use both products as I do. Netflix is a cute trick on the iPhone, a traveling companion on the iPad, made for Apple TV and the home screen. With Fox and ABC talking about dropping Hulu in favor of Netflix, Apple TV, and Xbox, the market may be compressing rapidly into a two-party system.

Netflix is interesting because it is the first service to follow the disruptive arc of the iPad. Every time the iPad is analyzed, the projections are anywhere from just plain wrong to what amounts to a niche. Doesn’t run applications… now there’s an AppStore. Doesn’t run Flash… now there’s a Flash converter app. Apps don’t support a magazine subscription model… Tuesday they will. Won’t be accepted by IT… 80% penetration. Will be overwhelmed by Android tablets… Apple will Verizon them with iPad 2.

Netflix: Doesn’t run this year’s shows… just announced limit of 2 simultaneous streams per subscription. Two problems that actually combine to further growth of the disruptive network. With 20 million subscribers already accounting for a big chance of YouTube style bandwidth, the studios are threatening to starve the service to protect cable and satellite and DVD pricing and windows. The solution: bump up to higher sub price to free up streams for family of four, producing high value customers that finance newer content. Also moving the service rapidly from DVD/Blue Ray to all streaming. What’s left? Live news and events, which Hulu Plus is talking of acquiring before Netflix gets too big.

What is reminiscent of iPadnomics is the speed with which the disruption is underestimated, the naiveté with which the backlash is orchestrated, and the resultant vaulting of the service into a near-incumbent position before the deposed incumbents can retrench from the initial mistaken counterattack. Netflix is already at the stage where iTunes was when the music cartel tried to cap it. While Amazon may be a cheaper service without so-called DRM, there’s no device comparable to Apple TV at the end of the value chain.

Instead there are the almostees like Google TV and Spotify, trying to patch together enough coverage to simulate the Netflix/Apple TV combination on the video side and iTunes/iOS on the music side. It’s not so much about Comcast replacement as they want you to think, because live programming has not been built out in this new Net model. A la carte programming is not yet worth piecing together from a cost perspective; it’s easier to keep the cable package and pay the on demand freight as Hollywood continues to roll out mediocre product.

Many of us are spending for a home theater experience plus cable/satellite and testing the broadband cap with streaming over Apple TV and Netflix. Right now for a family of four we’re spending $100 for first run and shifting the mid-tier to 8 bucks a pop plus the Netflix bill for the balance. The first news network to realize they are really competing (and losing – see Egypt) with Twitter and Facebook may talk with Hulu but will think twice before pissing off Apple or Netflix. Then we wait for HBO, or watch AMC or some such to replace them. Already Netflix at 20 million beats Showtime and Starz at between 17 and 18, with HBO not far enough ahead at 27.

Similarly, streaming has disrupted the technology business. Where Comcast and HBO have the most to lose to the Cloud in media, Microsoft and Office do in the enterprise. A generation of netizens is tweeting, retweeting, and @mentioning the stream, before emptying an InBox coming under attack behind the firewall. Microsoft can let some air out of the tire by announcing an OfficeTalk skunkworks project, but taking over the desktop from Outlook without a mobile strategy will be fighting the last war. Redmond is in between a rock and a hard place.

The next version iOS 4.3 supports advanced gestures for navigating between apps. As iPad developers support push notification in their next revs, the difference between micromessaging and the Inbox is secondary to the position in the alert queue. Microsoft could push these realtime messages to the front, but in doing so Outlook is further marginalized by competition with direct messages and @mentions. The Microsoft of the last few years could take part in a conversation about open data, but with Ozzie and Muglia gone and former-Office-now-Windows-chief Sinofsky cementing power, it’s a stretch to assume Microsoft won’t go classic in its bet on Office as the gatekeeper.

The wildcard here is Mac AppStore, where Apple has the opportunity to unify the social Office as a layer of cooperating apps. Write to the iPad, and run also on the Mac. If Microsoft decides to extend its OneNote iPhone app across Office, they will either up-port it to iPad (and implicitly replace native Mac with native Mac Apps) and damage WindowsPad, or push it to Android with even more disastrous consequences. With Apple TV on iOS, it’s write once run anyappware.

Watching Secretariat this weekend reminded me of the iPad/Netflix story arc. After close victories in shorter races at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes shaped up as an endurance test thought to bring the speedy come-from-behind horse back to earth. Instead Secretariat broke from the gate and won going away, leaving the field far behind by 31 lengths. Perhaps we’re not at the same point in Apple’s race, or at the very moment when the studios pull the reins back on Netflix’ run. But I wouldn’t bet on it.