Updated: Nautanki.tv, Ummm, Borrows (Heavily) From Hulu?

By May. 13, 2009, 4:30pm PT 13 Comments

UPDATED: We were going to write a post about how India-based Nautanki.tv was partnering with Facebook to offer three days of live streaming coverage of India’s recently concluded election (as Om reminded us, India is the world’s largest democracy, and how they use technology is intriguing). But what we found on the Nautanki.tv site’s About Us page caught our eye even more, since it looks awfully familiar.

It started when we read Nautanki’s mission (emphasis ours):

“Nautanki.tv’s mission is to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium video content when, where and how they want it. “

That rang a bell, particularly since we did a big story about Hulu’s mission statement yesterday:

“Hulu’s mission is to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium video content when, where and how they want it. As we pursue this mission, we aspire to create a service that users, advertisers, and content owners unabashedly love.”

Guess Nautanki.tv doesn’t need to be unabashedly loved or unabashedly original. We get it, writing marketing copy isn’t fun, but come on, Nautanki (UPDATE: or Hulu), you someone’s gotta put some effort into it.

UPDATE 3: Well, this story seems to have stirred up some controversy. Thanks to everyone who left comments. To be clear, this post wasn’t written to suggest that Nautanki.tv copied Hulu’s business. Lord knows putting premium content online is hardly the original idea of any one company. It was just to point out the almost identical set of words each company used to describe itself. We did Archive.org searches for the About pages of both companies, results after the jump:

NAUTANKI.TV
The archive goes back to Dec. 5, 2006, but links for the dates listed there bring back a “Not Found” error page until you get to Feb. 27, 2007, when the homepage is archived, but the “About” page is not.

From Feb. 27 – March 12, 2007, the homepage has the following Welcome message:

“We are India’s first online TV channel. We webcast programs / episodes / segments on an ongoing basis in the short format. In the various sections of nautanki.tv you will find humour, thrillers, drama, short films, documentaries, indie productions, satire, political commentaries, religion, spirituality and body and soul. We hope you enjoy our content and comment and rate the programming so that we can come up with a better selection.”

May 16, 2007 – The About us page can be found via Archive.org. The opening of that page reads:

“Founded in September 2006, nautanki.tv is an entertainment channel for people to watch original Indian content in the genres of drama, comedy, current affairs, live shows and so on. We went live on 20 November 2006.

Everyone can watch videos on nautanki.tv—both on nautanki.tv and across the Internet. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find programs catering to their interests, about their interests, and discover the quirky and unusual entertainment on the net – while they are at work or are simply waiting for some email to come by.”

October 11, 2007 – The company’s About page changes and included the following statement:

“nautanki.tv’s mission is to make entertainment available on the computer via the internet and make it universally accessible and useful.”

The last date found in the Archive is October 28, 2007 and has the same mission statement as Oct. 11. There are no other Archived pages from then on.

HULU:
October 31, 2007 – About us page is not archived.

November 15, 2007 – An early version of Hulu’s mission statement appears (emphasis ours):

“Hulu’s ambitious and never-ending mission is to help you find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, where and how you want it. We hope to provide you with the web’s most comprehensive selection of premium programming across all genres and formats – television shows, feature films, clips, and more. Additionally, we want to give you more choices of when and where you can enjoy your favorite programming, while creating innovative experiences that let you watch and participate in online video in new and exciting ways.”

January 19, 2008 – The archived About page cannot be accessed.

March 26, 2008 – The first sentence on the page reads:

“Hulu’s ambitious and never-ending mission is to help you find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, where and how you want it.”

Conclusion: The Archive.org search didn’t yield any definitive results, but it looks like Hulu’s been using a form of its current mission statement since November 2007. We don’t know when Nautanki’s current mission statement appeared, but as late as October 28, 2007, a vastly different version of that statement was being used by the company.

(Original post resumes)

Here some excerpts from both Nautanki.tv and Hulu’s strikingly similar About Us pages (right down to the italics!):

HULU

User Experience
Hulu is focused on quality and convenience and strives to create the best possible online video experience.

  • Hulu gives users the ability to customize their viewing experience online.
  • Hulu allows users to watch favorites or discover new shows anytime — at home or on the road.
  • Hulu’s search feature helps users find any premium video online even if it is not directly available on Hulu.com.

Hulu is easy to use and share. Simply go to www.hulu.com, and click on a video to watch right away.

  • Hulu does not require a download of any software. Users only need a Flash 9.0 enabled computer and an Internet connection to enjoy.
  • Hulu offers the freedom to share full-length episodes or clips via e-mail or embed on other Web sites, blogs and social networking pages.
  • Hulu’s clipping feature allows users to select a portion of the video they would like to share.

Hulu is free and legal through an advertising supported model.

  • Videos are available for unlimited streaming; watch favorite shows and clips over and over, for free
  • Videos contain fewer ads than on TV. Advertisements appear during normal commercial breaks
  • Hulu acquires the rights to distribute its videos, making them available to users legally

NAUTANKI.TV

User Experience
Nautanki.tv is focused on quality and convenience and strives to create the best possible online video experience.

  • Nautanki.tv gives users the ability to customize their viewing experience online.
  • Nautanki.tv allows users to watch favorites or discover new shows anytime . at home or on the road.
  • Nautanki.tv’s search feature helps users find any premium video online
  • iNautanki is a customizable channel creator which allows users to create their own online TV channels and take to where ever they want on the internet and mobile.
  • Nautanki.tv is easy to use and share. Simply go to www.Nautanki.tv, and click on a video to watch right away. Or find nautanki.tv widget on over 10000 web properties and enjoy the content from those locations. The widgets contain features which enable you to change channels, search and find video content that suits your tastes
  • Nautanki.tv does not require a download of any software. Users only need a Flash 9.0 enabled computer and an Internet connection to enjoy.
  • Nautanki.tv offers the freedom to share full-length episodes or clips via e-mail or embed on other Web sites, blogs and social networking pages.

    • Nautanki.tv is free and legal through an advertising supported model.

    • Videos are available for unlimited streaming; watch favorite shows and clips over and over, for free
    • Videos contain fewer ads than on TV. Advertisements appear during normal commercial breaks
    • Nautanki.tv acquires the rights to distribute its videos, making them available to users legally

    UPDATE: To be fair, Hulu could be borrowing liberally from Nuatanki. Maybe a Hulu rep could enlighten us.
     This post was updated with more information (see above).

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