• Ad Age, Tuesday, April 8, 2008 10:45 AM

NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker was proud to announce that ad inventory on Hulu.com--the joint content distribution venture from News Corp. and NBC Universal--had sold out, although more ad opportunities were being created. Zucker, speaking at the International Advertising Association's 41st annual World Congress in Washington on Monday, said that advertisers were interested in the site because they have more assurance that the content is professionally produced and appropriate for all audiences.

"Advertisers want to be on something where you know what you get and not on something where you could be advertising [next to a video of] a cat on a skateboard," he said, referring to the kind of videos one might see on video-sharing sites like YouTube. Zucker added that negotiations to add more traditional content producers to Hulu were ongoing. "I am hopeful that [CBS, Viacom and Disney] will be part of it in the years ahead," he said, adding that Hulu partners don't have to provide the site with exclusive rights to their content.

The NBC chief added that all traditional media companies "are in a tremendous digital transition. The problem we face today is not that we don't want to make all of content digital--we do--but the economics are not there. We are cognizant that when content goes online, economics go down, but viewership goes up. The biggest concern is replacing analog dollars with digital pennies."

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