Hulu has finally launched, well sort of at least. The joint
venture between NBC and News Corp. that
some thought would be a YouTube competitor, has at least given some of
the
chosen few in Silicon Valley a look at the service.
As far as I can tell from most descriptions of it, it sounds
like a video-distribution network that will compete more with
Brightcove and other similar video services than it will with YouTube.
In other words, it has nothing to do with
“user-generated content” or people uploading video
— it’s all about network content from NBC and News
Corp., distributed through a Flash player that can be embedded on other
sites and will be white-labeled to partners such as AOL and
MySpace.
Positive Early Impressions
Still, the early impressions seem positive; even Kara Swisher seems
to like it, and so
does MG Siegler at ParisLemon.
To the extent that NBC and News Corp. are getting the idea
that distributing your content by any means available is a good thing,
I think Hulu is a positive step.
But as Mark Hendrickson points
out at TechCrunch, this is still very much a TV-centric model
— that is, shows and content appear and disappear based on
the TV schedule. It may be flashy and well-designed, but I wonder
whether it will be compelling enough to really draw people in.
Further reading:
Henry Blodget at Silicon Alley Insider has a
nice rundown of the things that make Hulu less thrilling than
it appears, and one of those things is the restrictions
on the content that Hulu distributes. And Liz Gannes has more on
that angle as well — as she puts it:
“Hulu can’t avoid the trappings of big
media. The company is tied up in a contradictory situation, where
it’s chartered to have web-wide distribution while trying to
maintain tight control over the user experience wherever it
goes.”
PaidContent has a nice
overview of the launch as well, including the $100-million
investment by Providence Partners.
Written by Mathew Ingram, a technology journalist. Catch his views on the intersection between media and the web at MathewIngram.com. This post is licensed under the Creative Commons.
