Let’s Get Real, Hulu No Replacement for YouTube, iTunes
Despite a couple of headlines that briefly made me ponder if Universal bought the opinions of some A-Listers, Hulu, News Corp./NBC Universal’s online video website has received decidedly ho-hum reviews. The Hulu website will be the exclusive home to videos from NBC & News Corp. and will then syndicate the material to other sites, like AOL, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo. But not YouTube. NBC recently pulled their channel from YouTube, obviously in preparation for this launch.
Hulu’s programming list is extensive (MeeVee has the full list), featuring top shows from many networks (a show doesn’t have to air on NBC to be owned by NBC/Universal). Some highlights include 24, 30 Rock, Family Guy, Bionic Woman, Bones, Heroes, House, King of the Hill, My Name is Earl, The Office, Prison Break, and The Simpsons. There’s even a handful of older shows and classic movies.
Maybe the site is slick. Maybe it’s the best video website ever invented. But frankly, I don’t care.
Let’s be clear about what Hulu is - it’s a video streaming website, where the videos are monetized with 5-second prerolls, banners, overlays, and 30-second midroll ads (according to NewTeeVee). Hulu does not offer any user-generated content, but, most importantly, there are no downloads of any material found on Hulu. So, now, instead of being able to click a button in iTunes, download the latest episode of "The Office" to my iPod, and take it anywhere with me, I have to watch streaming, ad-supported videos on Hulu’s website? How is that revolutionary? Last I checked, if I wanted to watch streaming TV online, I already could: right here (NBC) and here (FOX) and everywhere. And you know what? It really wasn’t that hard to figure out where to go to see them. It’s not like we’re talking about hundreds of micro-sites here. If the show was on NBC, then I could watch it on NBC.com. If the show was on Fox, then I could watch it on Fox.com. Oh, and if I wanted to watch a mashup of Jim and Pam’s best scenes, I could have found that on YouTube.
What’s so sad is that Hulu could have been great…as a new addition to the video marketplace. As a well-designed, easy-to-use website full of great content, Hulu could have attracted many admirers, happy to stream the shows, watch the ads, and line NewsCorp/NBC/Universal’s pockets. However, by yanking the content from every other source, the Hollywood behemoths are forcing you to use Hulu and only Hulu, and that begs the comparision: Hulu vs. what you used to have - ubiquity and portability. And it’s a comparison that leaves Hulu sorely lacking.
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