Hulu was launched as a private beta earlier this week, and
immediately provoked a ream of blog space dedicated to it.
Rather than talking about Hulu, I wanted to revisit the very
similar Fancast, a hybrid entertainment portal from the cable service
provider.
It’s what Hulu (and its partnership with Comcast) reminded
me of.
Back in August when I reviewed
Fancast, I admired it and described it as “web 2.0 meets IMDB meets TV
Guide” for its
comprehensive database of movies and television shows that also
provided viewers with TV listings in an effort to help visitors decide
what to watch each day on television.
Just as expected, my visit to the Fancast homepage today
revealed that full episodes of several shows are now available from a
variety of television networks.
Programming From A Variety Of Networks
Users of Comcast’s Fancast can now view programming from CBS, USA Network, Sci-Fi, and of
course, content from Hulu’s
selection of NBC
and Fox
shows.
Fancast has it’s own customized player, although it would be
nice to see a ‘Full Screen’ feature, as most online video services now
have. As seen in the screen below, the pages of content that is
provided by Hulu contains the new Hulu logo prominently above the video.
Watch It!
In addition to full episodes, the service now also features a
new ‘Watch It’ feature which helps users discover where to watch and
download their favorite programs.
For example, let’s say a user searches for the NBC show Heroes
on Fancast. The search results page (shown in the screenshot below) has
Heroes as the first entry along with a green box
to the right that says ‘Watch It.’
Hovering over this box displays a larger box with links to
full episodes on Fancast, a listing to see when it will next air on
television, sites that sell the DVD box set, as well as places to find
digital downloads such as Amazon Unbox
and Apple iTunes.
Fancast Over IMDB
Now that it has new features available, I find myself more
compelled to use Fancast over IMDB to find information about movies or
television shows.
When I want to see who stars in a certain movie or the premise
of a new show, I almost always visit the
Internet Movie Database
first. Now, however, Fancast offers a much better-looking interface as
well as the ability to keep track of my favorites and view thousands of
full episodes.
I can find exactly what is on my cable service with a custom
TV listing and did I mention that it also does a great job of
recommending new entertainment to watch, as several of its suggestions
are already favorites of mine that I just had not gotten around to
marking in Fancast yet.
Planned, but yet to be completed, are features that will aim
to better integrate Fandango
(a Comcast-owned service that sells movie theater tickets) into
Fancast.
Currently, the menu contains a ‘Movie Tickets’ links, but
instead of remaining on the Fancast
site users are being redirected to the Fandango homepage.
Michael Garrett is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com.
