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Hulu to go public some time next year

16 December 2007 15:19 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 4 comments

At the UBS Securities Media & Entertainment conference Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal (NBCU), announced that his company's joint online video venture in partnership with News Corp. should be going live sometime after the beginning of next year. Currently the service, called Hulu, is in private beta testing with an estimated 60,000 users.

In August NBCU announced they were removing their videos from iTunes, which finally occured earlier this month when their agreement with the online store ran out. In October they launched the invitation-only private Hulu beta. In the interim they also shut down their official YouTube Channel.

Zucker says the reason for the split with iTunes was a simple economic decision. He called iTunes a fantastic service, but said he felt it unreasonable on Apple's part to refuse requests to have input on pricing. �There is no place that I can think of where the retailer also gets to set the wholesale price,� Zucker said. "All we asked for is the opportunity to set a variable price structure, even with just one program. Apple was not willing to do that.�

�One of the biggest things I struggle with is to make sure we�re not replacing dollars with pennies,� Zucker said.

Source: Multichannel News

Permalink to this article

Hulu adds 7 new partner websites to deliver streaming video (21 May 2008)

Hulu is now open to the public (12 March 2008)

Hulu set to launch tomorrow (11 March 2008)

CBS adds classic TV shows to streaming lineup (23 February 2008)

Hulu to offer Super Bowl commercials the following Monday (2 February 2008)

NBC Universal has "record performance" profits despite iTunes (20 January 2008)

Veoh adds videos from Hulu (16 January 2008)

CES 2008: NBC promotes Mediaport kiosks (9 January 2008)

CES 2008: Studio executives reveal online strategy for coming year (8 January 2008)

Apple and Fox ink deal for iTunes movie rentals (27 December 2007)

US online video watching on the rise (20 December 2007)

Hulu to go public some time next year (16 December 2007)

NBC TV shows disappear from iTunes as contract expires (4 December 2007)

NBC Direct beta open (13 November 2007)

Google and NBC discuss video delivery at conference (8 November 2007)

NBCU Chief criticizes Apple yet again over iTunes (29 October 2007)

NBC online video moves to the Hulu private beta (29 October 2007)

NBC confirms rumors about YouTube channel vanishing (23 October 2007)

NBC pulls plug on YouTube channel (21 October 2007)

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duckNrun (Member) 17 December 2007 4:09
First post....LOL Just Kidding!-- I hate those types of posts Seriously though, I have been checking out Hulu for about 2 weeks and find it quite interesting but with a few 'flaws'. They have quite a list of available shows and some movies. There are about only 3-4 commercial breaks lasting about 15-20 second per episode and a movie I looked at didn't seem to have any-- though I didn't watch the whole thing. They have current shows, not so current shows and shows from the 80's as well. Often times late at night I find myself viewing something off of there when nothing else is on cable or I have no rental movie to watch. The interface is quite straight forward and unlike the network sites (e.g NBC.com) when the commercial comes on it doesn't pop a new window on me and re-size my fullscreen mode for the show. Now for the negatives: While they have a pretty good selection to choose from they need more. More shows to choose from and more episodes for the shows do they have and more movies. I got turned onto 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' from Hulu after reading some posts about it. BUT they do not have the complete series to date only season 1 and season 3. Some shows do not even have a full season and while this may be due to cancellation of the series I believe I have run across some that I know were on longer than the available episodes to watch. I think that as time passes and hulu goes public that the choices will probably increase. Overall I have not been turned off by this service and would, and have, recommend people check it out. Next post I will include a list of what they have although the list is a week old and may have been updated since then (I emailed this list to contacts so they could see what was available). Cheers! [ + quote]
duckNrun (Member) 17 December 2007 4:15
Titles available on Hulu (sorted alphabetically) 24 30 Days 30 Rock The A-Team Adam-12 Age of Love Airwolf Alfred Hitchcock Hour Alfred Hitchcock Presents Alias Smith And Jones American Dad! American Misfits Andy Barker P.I. Animals Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? Arrested Development The Art of Seduction Back To You Bad Girls Road Trip Battlestar Galactica Battlestar Galactica Classic Big Ideas for a Small Planet The Biggest Loser Bionic Woman The Blues Brothers The Bob Newhart Show Bones Boo! The Breakfast Club Breaking Away Brother's Keeper Buck Rogers Buffy the Vampire Slayer Bulworth Burn Notice Campus Cops Chicago Hope Chuck Cleopatra 2525 The Comebacks Conan the Barbarian Conviction Cops Cover Me The Crow: Stairway To Heaven Damages Days of our Lives Death Sentence Doogie Howser, M.D. Dr. 90210 Dr. Steve-O Dragnet Eco Biz Emergency! Eureka Exosquad Family Guy Fight Girls Firefly Firsthand Flash Gordon Flipping Out Fox Movie Channel presents "Casting Session" Fox Movie Channel presents "Life After Film School" Fox Movie Channel presents "Making a Scene" Fox Movie Channel presents "World Premiere" Friday Night Lights Fudge Futurama Ghost Hunters The Girls Next Door Hell's Kitchen Heroes Hill Street Blues Horseracing A to Z House IGN Videos Inside the Actors Studio It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia J.Y.A. Jack of All Trades The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency The Jerk Journeyman K-Ville Kathy Griffin Keeping Up with The Kardashians King Of The Hill Kitchen Confidential Kitchen Nightmares Kojak Kojak 2004 L.A. Dragnet Land of the Giants Las Vegas Last Call with Carson Daly Late Night with Conan O'Brien Life The Loop Lost in Space Lou Grant Manhattan, AZ The Mary Tyler Moore Show Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World McHale's Navy Miami Vice Million Dollar Listing Monk Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Murder One My Bare Lady My Name is Earl Nanny and the Professor Night Gallery October Sky The Office Outer Limits Over There Pantry Raid Peacemakers Phenomenon Picket Fences The Practice The Pretender Prison Break Project Runway Psych Queer Eye Raines The Real Housewives of Orange County Remington Steele The Riches Rob and Amber: Against the Odds Roswell Saturday Night Live Scrubs She Spies Shear Genius Sideways Simon & Simon The Simpsons Sitting Ducks Sixth Sense So You Think You Can Dance Solitary The Soup St. Elsewhere Stacked Standoff The Starter Wife Surface Swamp Thing Talkshow with Spike Feresten Tequila & Bonetti 'Til Death Tin Man The Tonight Show Top Chef Top Design Tori & Dean: Inn Love Total Recall 2070 Tremors Vanished Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Weekend at Bernie's Weird Science WKRP in Cincinnati Woody Woodpecker (New) Work Out [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 24 December 2007 8:31
All i am wondering about is the fact that is this going to be like Youtube or is it like joost?? [ + quote]
duckNrun (Member) 24 December 2007 12:09
It's not like You Tube at all. This is more like what the networks have on their sites: complete episodes but not neccesarily complete seasons or all seasons made of the shows and movies listed above... and for only the cost of watching a 20 second commercial 3-4 times. [ + quote]