Inside NBC/News Corp’s Hulu.com

by David Mullings

I was anxious to receive my invitation to beta test the new online video venture from NBC Universal and News Corp. – Hulu.com. The media had been touting it as a Youtube competitor that would be focused on professional content and I was eager to see exactly what it was and how it compared to Joost (see my previous post about my first week with Joost). There is no competition between Hulu and Youtube – I will go to Hulu for my professional content any day.

I know a thing or two about online video and always seek to keep abreast of new developments. Joost has been a welcome service but when combined with Hulu, I frankly begin to need my cable even less. Hulu has a decent library of content so far, ranging from older television shows like Airwolf to current shows like Family Guy and Heroes and even movies like Blues Brothers.

It is extremely easy to use, finding content is a breeze, and the partners to date are impressive. DVDs won’t be the only way in the future to see the content we love so much. So far I have subscribed to Family Guy and Bionic Woman so I see the new episodes as they are made available. I have also checked out episodes of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (seeing as how there is a strike and no new episodes are airing right now), brought back memories of my childhood by watching the A-Team and Airwolf, and laughed out loud when watching sketches from Saturday Night Live.

The revenue model is straightforward – a 5-second pre-roll clip letting you know who sponsors the broadcast, a banner hanging around on the page and limited commercial interruptions from the sponsor – on par with Joost and in no way annoying. The quality is great in the browser, though not as crisp as Joost when in full-screen, but better than any other hosted solution (Joost uses P2P architecture). The few people I have shown it to are all converts and itching for it to go live to all.

Hulu, and any other service that will launch and focus on such quality content, presents numerous opportunities for smaller content creators, if they can become a partner. Hulu also provides a great template for similar concepts built exclusively around professional content from outside of the US, especially developing countries.

You must pardon the length of the post but I have to get back to my episodes of Airwolf.