`Blue - Season 3, Episode 1

(click here to watch the episode)

Blue’s sister Lara and her friend Satya pay an unexpected visit and take over the apartment just as Josh and Francesca’s relationship gets serious. Meanwhile, Blue meets a new client with an odd request, but she recognizes its lucrative potential.

Superstar LeBron James stunned the basketball world in 2010, when he said he would take his talents to South Beach.  He fled the Cleveland Cavaliers, to play for the Miami Heat, in what has become known as The Decision.  He returned home to Cleveland this summer in a similarly stunning reversal of The Decision.

It was disheartening to see `Blue, and WIGS overall, fly the coup of YouTube and take its standout talent to Hulu.  But the story behind the move is, in and of itself, intriguing from a media business standpoint, as CNET writer Joan Solsman explains in a very informative article:

WIGS move highlights how the YouTube audience may not be perfectly suited for content that wants to move up the food chain. As Fox takes WIGS further along the path to potentially appearing on its own channels, it's expanding the series to a platform with a fraction of the viewership.

For Google, "Blue" and other WIGS shows expanding to Hulu raises their profile to YouTube's benefit. Viewers who see "Blue" elsewhere and want more of WIGS will come back to YouTube to get it. The expansion, YouTube would say, confirms the value of its site for premium content, rather than questions it.

James Dix, an analyst for Wedbush who covers Google, says advertising prices on a program typically are higher the greater the reach of the program, so it makes sense for YouTube get as much distribution as it can. Though a portion of the advertising revenue is lost to Hulu, "if it's reaching a million people versus 100,000 people, in theory that would help YouTube."

Reference: 'Blue' expands to Hulu too, spreading beyond YouTube.

I imagine this is a highly calculated gamble for Fox, that is, expanding its reach for WIGS by sidling into a much smaller platform.  The endgame may not just be Fox.com, as Solsman points out, but perhaps a movie for the big screen and-or an outright TV series on either free or paid channels.  Such tried-and-true media are where Fox excels.

For Google, beastly parent of YouTube, its formidable platform is not fazed in the least, and the Fox gamble may indeed pay handsomely in return: not just with more views to the WIGS content it already has, but also with a bigger draw for both advertisers and creators.  In other words, if quality content can establish an amazing footing on YouTube, then it makes sense to come to the giant's lair.

All that said, let's enjoy Season 3 of `Blue!

"Looks like you're good at that, Mom." "Practice, Josh, practice makes perfect."

"Hey, Josh, what up, bitch?" "If she gives you permission, you're still whipped, Joshua."  "Fuck you."  "Yes, please."  

"I don't do that." "You don't do what?  You don't pretend to be someone, in order to give a client what he needs?"

"She's older than me, by a couple of years." "Cougar, fun." 

"Did Dad approach you?  He's not the smoothest operator." "He's totally awk."  "I'm not fucking awk.  I've got game."  "Yeah, 'paralympic' game." 

"So what do you think of my sister?" "She's uptight.  Why'd your Dad call her Blue?" "He said, sometimes she has a sad little face."