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 yours truly. Now it needs to find a mainstream audience.
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. I might have changed my mind about Hulu, but will others find the service attractive? More @ NewTeeVee
19 comments so far
11:32 PM PT
Thats a misleading headline. When I saw the words “ready for the world”, I thought you meant, they might actually allow people outside the US to use their site.
12:35 AM PT
Ready for the world? Will it be available outside the US, too?
5:11 AM PT
Om did put a question mark in his headline so I kinda forgive him there ;)
When HULU and all the other US centric IPTV services provide global release windows for thier partners content then Om can proclaim
“Ready for the World!”
6:45 AM PT
@kuldeep and @ Amit,
Apologies for the slightly leading headline. It was mostly inspired by a song I was listening to when I wrote that headline. Oh Sheila, by a now forgotten band called, Ready For The World.
7:34 AM PT
And by “World” you mean continental USA of course?
7:55 AM PT
Om, I’m really happy to hear you came around to Hulu. Here in the office, I “test” Hulu all the time and always liked to believe long-form video content powered by the Internet would have a bright future. With services such as Hulu, advances in bandwidth upgrades and optimization, and soon, televisions with built in wireless capabilities, I think it won’t be too long before we can start watching Airwolf in the living room.
8:05 AM PT
@ Shah, I have been impressed by the quality of the video. I think if they started using technology from say Move Networks, the quality could be pretty good even on a 23-inch computer screen.
8:05 AM PT
@ Alex G: read the previous comment for explanation.
8:07 AM PT
I didn’t mean to criticize. I honestly want to know, if they are planning to launch hulu outside US anytime soon, spl. in India.
9:03 AM PT
I’m a fan of Hulu, but the first time I really needed the service was this past week when I was traveling outside the US. And then I discovered you couldn’t access it. What a bummer. Takes away a major reason to go there.
9:58 AM PT
I had no real expectation that it would be available out of the US, its just that when I popped open my RSS reader this was the first article in my list, and I got excited for about 10 secs when I read the headline. No apologies were expected, but it good to know you feel our pain when it comes to accessing stuff outside the US.
10:15 AM PT
Thanks to the beta invite from Gigaom, I have been regularly visiting Hulu and quite happy with their video quality.
10:34 AM PT
@ kuldeep,
i don’t think they have any plans on launching outside the US. aren’t there some proxy spoofing tricks one can use to watch hulu? let me check!
10:35 AM PT
@ Damian,
that is indeed a bummer. I hope hulu changes its plans and goes overseas.
12:16 PM PT
BTW - Great choice of a sample movie clip on a couple of counts:
A) It’s funny.
B) It’s a great little retort to the “fire anyone who won’t put in 18 hour days at your startup” idiocies that have been supported this week by the likes of Scoble, Calacanis, etc. I guess we know who their hero is now.
I simply can’t imagine any of the poor saps working 18 hours a day 6 or 7 days a week for naught but $35k per year ever utter - “I should have worked more…”
:-D
4:41 PM PT
@ Nice Clip,
Amen to both your points. being one who kinda gotta into trouble myself, I know the whole 18-hour-work-day theory is a one way road to disaster. trust me - i have been there.
12:05 AM PT
[...] at TechCrunch warned of excessive Hulu mania, and Om had to correct his implication that Hulu is Ready For The World (it’s ready for exactly one of the world’s many [...]
8:49 PM PT
Comment to Om Malik…
If you want to know about your long forgotten group Ready For The World
try this http://www.myspace.com/mickeydeepend.
Oh yeah, they are still performing.
Thanks,Om Malik.
From, Mickey Deepend…
11:40 AM PT
I don’t own a television, so thank god for Hulu.com for not forcing me download anything to watch my favorite television shows and movies in high-quality video on my laptop for free. Seriously — thank you.
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