Fall TV shows to premiere on Hulu.com before broadcast TV – a sign of things to come or merely a test pattern?

A recent TechCrunch article, stated that Hulu.com, a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp. for free streaming of television shows and movies, will not only be showing season permieres of popular NBC and Fox shows such as 30 Rock, The Office, Heroes, Prison Break, Bones, etc., but will also be the site to turn to catch new shows and shows in their sophomore season a week earlier than broadcast TV.  These shows include Knight Rider, Chuck, Lipstick Jungle, and Life.

While this can be seen as a publicity stunt to garner attention to shows that may need additional coverage to convince people to tune in, the fact of the matter is that more and more people are turning online to watch TV instead.  In a recent survey by Integrated Media Measurement Inc., 20% of all TV viewing in the US is occuring online.  As devices such as DVRs and services like Apple’s iTunes continue to erode away at the the base of those who prefer to watch TV in “real time,” broadcasters are finally recognizing that these additional outlets for their content are not enemies, but rather, powerful allies.

As broadcasters learn to monitor and mine the data of those who watch their shows online with sites such as Hulu, they can better quantify and categorize the viewing community.  Broadcasters will know what age, gender, and income demographics make up the average Chuck viewer vs. that of Lipstick Jungle.  Armed with this data, broadcasters can package new, targeted commercial arrangements to potential advertisers and be able to charge a premium for this advertising since it is certain to reach the advertiser’s target audience.

However, reaching the target demographic is not the same as connecting with the target audience.  For this to occur, broadcasters need to gather more information than the basic demographic information.  To truly connect and deliver value to advertisers, the broadcasters need to have a continual dialogue with the audience, learning about their specific wants, needs, and desires so that relevant audience clusters and personas can be generated for each show.

While this is a good first step online, there is still a way to go before truly relevant and customized messaging reaches the viewing audience.