In March of 2007, NBC in partnership with News Corp. announced plans to create a YouTube competitor. NBC sited concerns with YouTube profiting from content they owned and decided to build their own online distribution channel. In late August of this year, they named it Hulu and the private beta shows promise.

Logging in for the first time I saw a large banner advertising Tin Man – Watch Now. According to BrandWeek, Tin Man “. . . lured 5.3 million viewers with a 50/50 male/female audience, making Sci Fi the top entertainment cable channel for the three-night run.”

Switching back to the front page of Hulu, I couldn’t believe the company would offer a dynamite show like Tin Man for free. But, it’s true. I clicked on the “Play Now” button and an embedded flash player launched, streaming a low-res version of the show. Simple enough, though I wasn’t looking forward to 30 minutes of ads I usually avoid with my Tivo. That’s when I noticed the show clocked in at 1:27:57 instead of the 2 hours blocked out on the Sci Fi channel schedule. It was ad free.

Since Tin Man is already saved on my Tivo I decided to try some other options. Back on the main page I clicked the “Popular Episodes” link and saw a laundry list of shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Office, House etc. All without ads.

Clicking on The Simpsons, I decided to explore the video interface. Under each video Hulu includes the standard cluster of comments, and user ratings appear next to the video title. A “Lower Lights” option dims out all of the other content in the browser window. Below is a snapshot of the interface as seen in FireFox.

The regular videos looked great at their native sizes, but viewed in full screen mode they suffered from some fuzziness.

Hulu also provides a small list of videos in high definition (HD), mainly movie trailers right now. The HD videos require Flash Player 9 and a decent Internet connection. On my system the Horton Hears a Who! – Trailer was a little choppy.

In addition to the full length episodes, Hulu also houses a growing repertoire of popular clips with options to sort by genre, popularity, or source (NBC, FX, IGN, FOX, or Oxygen).

Interestingly, they also allow users to view shows as they’re aired live on television.

Currently there are no videos uploaded by users and the site has a more sterile feel than YouTube. Right now it looks like NBC and partners are throwing pasta against the wall to see if it sticks.

Moving forward Hulu will need to somehow create a model that generates revenue without alienating users, but this is a step in the right direction.

Overall I was impressed with how much content Hulu distributes for free, and the video quality is adequate. I’ll be visiting the company’s site frequently to watch how it builds a viable business model while continuing to provide a compelling value proposition.

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Entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 7:15 pm under Internet, Online video, YouTube.

Read more entries by Matt Jansen.
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