Hulu Launches with Warner, Lionsgate
Wow Hulu, you really pile it on, don’t you? I can barely digest all the news the company is putting out tonight. First and foremost, it’s launching tomorrow. It’s also signed Warner Bros., Lionsgate, the NBA, and the NHL (but not Quincy Smith’s CBS). And the site will start featuring premium web content from the likes of Vuguru, WatchMojo and WineLibrary TV on the same level as big media.
For the first time, the company is putting out numbers: It’s had 5 million viewers in the past 30 days, including video viewed on partner sites like AOL and MySpace. That’s pretty insane for a semi-private beta. Since 18 weeks ago, when Hulu first let anyone in, the company’s video players have been embedded more than 50,000 times on nearly 6,000 sites.
Though the beta started with mostly TV shows, Hulu has beefed up its movie collection, with more than 100 movies (still nothing compared to Netflix or even iTunes). The site’s viewing experience has also improved, instituting full seasons of some current shows and movies supported by trailers rather than interrupting ads.
In an emailed press release, Hulu said its many of its beta advertisers are renewing, and mentioned Best Buy, Chili’s, DirecTV, Intel, Nissan, State Farm, and Unilever as current advertisers.
I wouldn’t usually just excerpt a list, but I think it’s worth doing here to show the full breadth of content now available. Below are Hulu’s named partners:
FOX, NBC Universal, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. Television Group, as well as Access Hollywood, AST Dew Tour, BNET, Bravo, Broadway Video, CenterStaging, Chic.tv, Chiller, CHOW, CNET, Comedy Time, E! Entertainment Television, ExerciseTV, FEARnet, Ford Models, Fox Atomic, Fox Movie Channel, Fox Reality, Fox Searchlight, Fox Sports, Fox TV Studios, Fuel TV, FX Networks, G4TV, Gamespot, Gamespy, Hidden Universe, IGN, Image Entertainment, Lionsgate, LX.TV, MEN7, Mojo, Movieola, My Network TV, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Digital Shorts, NBA, NBC Sports, NBCU TV, NHL, Oxygen, Paley Media, Red Bull, Reveille, Salient Media, SciFi Channel, Shout! Factory, Sleuth Channel, SpaceRip, Speed, Sundance Channel, Taste TV, The Fight Network, The Golf Channel, The Onion, The Style Network, Thought Equity, TV Guide, TVG, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox Television, Twentieth Television, Universal Pictures, USA Network, Versus, Vuguru, WatchMojo, Wine Library TV and World Wrestling Entertainment®.
Hulu has done a great job of catering to the early adopter audience, for instance giving away thousands of beta invites to readers of this blog. We’ll be watching to see if it can hit the mainstream. We know some 16 percent of American Internet households are watching TV online already.
Streaming web video is never going to be the be-all end-all, but as a happy Hulu beta tester I would bet it’s gonna be big.
Comments (11)
Linkbacks (17)
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[...] Om Malik, Monday, March 10, 2008 at 10:30 PM PT Comments (0) Hulu is launching tomorrow and has signed Warner Bros., Lionsgate, the NBA, and the NHL. The site also features premium web content from Vuguru, WatchMojo and WineLibrary TV. Hulu has come a long way for its early days when it was referred to as Clown Co by many including me. Now it needs to find an audience in the mainstream. With $100 million VC funding it has a long rope to build a business. On a personal note, during my sick days, Hulu was a constant companion, providing laughs on demand. Full report @ NewTeeVee [...]
Oh Hulu! Ready For The World? - GigaOM
— 10:31 PM on March 10, 2008
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[...] feel like a punk because I don’t have a Hulu invite and they’re launching today with a ton of content. Hulu was one of the first companies to embrace the HD-Flash revolution with [...]
Ryan Stewart - Rich Internet Application…
— 12:49 AM on March 11, 2008
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[...] for select shows and some premium web content from Vuguru, WatchMojo and WineLibrary TV. (Check out this list for all of Hulu’s [...]
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[...] Probably the most key factor in Hulu success will be the content. This is an area that they have been making great strides in, and with the public launch will offer content from Warner Brothers, Lionsgate, the NBA and the NHL NewTeeVee’s Liz Gannes reports. [...]
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— 11:29 AM on March 11, 2008
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— 2:28 PM on March 11, 2008
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[...] [via NewTeeVee] [...]
Hulu launches tomorrow | money news blog
— 6:02 PM on March 11, 2008
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[...] Warner Bothers, Lionsgate, and more. In all, there are over fifty different providers which NewTeeVee lists. The shows and movies that they provide aren’t exactly high quality, but they’re not [...]
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— 9:34 AM on March 12, 2008
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[...] Hulu Launches with Warner, Lionsgate, NewTeeVee [...]
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[...] Hulu Launches with Warner, Lionsgate, NewTeeVee [...]
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— 7:49 PM on March 12, 2008
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[...] why the tech sector should still care about his company. Also on the show, we talk a little Hulu, and if Mary Tyler Moore is watching, I’m sorry for butchering your theme song (the producer [...]
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— 7:35 AM on March 14, 2008
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[...] what Wuthrich had to say about the lack of full-length movies on Hulu: You’ll see our TV shows there, but we don’t have our movies on there. For ad supported [...]
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— 3:00 AM on March 19, 2008
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[...] its beta launch eventually earned it some grudging respect. Lots of new content providers are piling into the actual launch. A new Facebook app lets you say it with movie clips. Another new Facebook app [...]
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[...] I want to be able to travel with a laptop (MacBook) and a phone. Thanks to Internet radio and Hulu, I’ve eliminated a lot of of my entertainment gadgets, but I’m still packing a lot [...]
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— 7:45 AM on April 7, 2008
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[...] all online video sites, according to Nielsen’s April measure. The site, which has only been public for two months, is now seeing more than 63 million streams and 2.4 million users per month, with each user viewing [...]
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[...] Birthday, Hulu — Do We Still Need You? Has it really been a year since Hulu launched? Wow. They grow up so quick. To celebrate its anniversary, Hulu is getting social by inviting its [...]
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Very impressive list. What is their direction in terms of original web series? What do they consider “premium”?
Now only if HULU would work on the Wii ,PS3 and Xbox ……
I wished it worked in Canada…
To anyone outside the US, Hulu is still worthless.
I have only one request for Hulu. Make Full Screen viewing a better experience. When I go to full screen it gets choppy. Other than that, I love the site/service.
I have enjoyed Hulu and watch it full-screen on a projector attached to my Macbook Pro and rarely having problems with the streaming of quality. My wife constantly comments that it is hard to believe that we are watching a streaming video on a website.
International availability is a rights issue and the copyright owners aka Hollywood need to adapt, not Hulu’s fault.
I love it and find it easier to keep up with “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” than traditional TV and I doubt I am the only one (plus I love watching episodes of Airwolf and Remington Steele).
Sounds great but I won’t be interested until they start showing enough ads to pay their way. I guess they still have the better part of $85million to burn as they find a business model.
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Couldn’t non US users just go through a proxy?