Skip to main content

Got 30 seconds? Fox experiments with shorter, interactive ads on Hulu

As the streaming landscape continues to get more crowded — and more cutthroat — Hulu is looking to shake things up when it comes to its ad format.

After launching a new, more expensive subscription service that cuts ads all together, the primarily ad-supported service will now offer viewers the option of shorter, interactive ads. Fox (whose parent company 21st Century Fox is a co-owner of Hulu) has rolled out the first such option for a 30-second interactive ad experience for its programming, as opposed to the usual practice of showing interspersed ads totaling about two and a half minutes each.

Recommended Videos

Fox’s ad tech sector TrueX explained that the new engagement ads are more effective than traditional digital ads because they “guarantee the full attention of the viewer.” Wall Street Journal notes that Hulu has experimented with other ad formats in the past, including one that let viewers order a pizza or see a 360-degree view of a car’s interior.

“The whole purpose is to get out [of] this heavy ad-loading environment, where consumers are ad blocking and consumers are ad avoiding,” explained TrueX founder Joe Marchese to WSJ. “We need to start fixing the interruptive ad model.”

The ads will initially be placed only on desktops and smartphones where it’s easy for users to click, but the goal is to eventually roll them out to Hulu-compatible set-top boxes. Only Fox shows will use the ad technology at first, but Hulu said it will give other media companies the option as well.

TrueX Vice President of Research Jamie Auslander exhibited the ad technology at an advertising event in May according to Adweek. In the demo, online viewers of Fox’s The Mindy Project were given the choice to watch an interactive video for 30 seconds instead of five 30-second commercials throughout the show. This particular interactive ad, for Microsoft, showed a page with three of the company’s tablets that viewers could customize and then click through to buy from Microsoft’s website.

“Like Hulu, TrueX has been a pioneer of interactive advertising formats,” said Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins in a statement. “We are pleased to partner with TrueX to bring choice based advertising to viewers watching Fox Networks Group Content.”

Food and beverage company Mondelez International, which owns Swedish Fish, Halls and Ritz, is the first marketer to sign on to run these new interactive ads.

Chris Leo Palermino
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…
Christopher Nolan got the tonal balance exactly right on Batman Begins
Batman gliding down a stairwell in Batman Begins.

It's been 20 years since Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins first hit theaters, and in that time, the superhero movie has evolved dramatically. The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe came after Batman Begins, as did Ben Affleck's version of Batman. Given all of that new history, you might think that Batman Begins would look a bit quaint by modern standards, the same way that Tim Burton's Batman remains an interesting movie as a new generation was indoctrinated by Nolan.

What's more, Nolan's Batman movies have developed a reputation as the trilogy that proved that you could take superheroes seriously. They spawned an entire generation of fans who would get upset when it felt like the characters they loved weren't being treated with the kind of weight they deserved. That's basically the entire project of Zack Snyder's DC Extended Universe, which is now about to be wiped off the map by yet another version of DC.

Read more
3 great action movies on Tubi you need to watch in June
Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock in Demolition Man.

If you haven't downloaded Tubi, what are you waiting for? As a FAST service, Tubi is free. You read that correctly. Tubi is a free service that offers hundreds of movies and television shows at no cost to the consumer. The quality of movies is better than expected. Jaws, Memento, Air, the Great Escape, and On the Waterfront are all on Tubi.

Tubi's action genre remains one of its best. If you need some recommendations, we have you covered. One of our picks this month is Demolition Man, a 1993 sci-fi movie with a legendary action hero. Read our picks below.

Read more
3 rom-coms on Netflix you need to watch in June 2025
A woman and a man sit at a bar.

You can never have enough romance in your life, especially when watching movies. The rom-com is a lost art in theaters. However, Netflix is dedicated to keeping the rom-com alive with its wide selection of delightful movies. The Life List, Set It Up, Love at First Sight, The Kissing Booth, and To All The Boys I've Loved Before are all Netflix originals.

Add one of our picks, The Perfect Date, to the list of movies you need to watch this month. Noah Centineo has carved out a role in Netflix lore as a leading man for the streamer. Learn more about The Perfect Date and our two other recommendations below.

Read more