Free videos from NBC & FOX: Hulu.com
News Corp. and NBC Universal Monday debuted their joint-venture online video service Hulu.com with a private beta, adding a new rival to Apple Inc.’s iTunes and Google Inc.’s YouTube services. Hulu joins Joost’s video offerings in this increasingly hot and crowded space. While only opening on a limited basis to select users, Hulu is the first major initiative by content owners rather than technology companies that must rely on licensing agreements with television, film and music providers for their content.
Along with Hulu’s own site, the company said its videos would be available through partners such as AOL, MSN and MySpace, although links for Hulu on these sites were not apparent at the time of writing. The company also said it had closed a US$100 million round of financing from Rhode Island-based private equity firm Providence Equity Partners. Hulu’s beta and service — the launch date for which has yet to be announced — include a few full-length films, and clips and full episodes from shows such as “The Simpsons,” “Prison Break,” and “House.” Hulu will offer video content on an advertising-driven basis that is free to users. I guess this service could be an instant success. It’s also nice to finally see more and more companies realize they can’t win this battle against filesharing – so why not to take over the audience and offer them your own content…
Source: AP, Computerworld
Comments(48)
FIRST
Second
third
forth
fifth
hope i get invite
,this is a great news
7 :p
fifth
So does this mean we could get videos for free rather than having to deal with all these advertisements and lack of torrents on rlslog.net from now on?
If so, then it sounds like a good service.
what a stupid name HULU…should have named it NbcFox.com
@lcl
you look like a jerk now by saying “fifth” in comment #8. thats just sad
@Rap
You mean FoxNbc.com, don’t you?
do you have to be an US resident to receive this service?
@T
yes, ive jus read anyways, loada s**T
15th!
omg, thats so stoopid
invite for the website, anyone?
We will send an invitation as soon as we are ready for you!
Thank you,
Team Hulu
Anyone got an idea when they’ll be ready launch?
17th
Looks like pre-school have hit rlslog
1st – 2nd – 3rd
Who cares about what position your comments under, people shouldnt have to scroll past crap spam to read others reviews to make sure theres isnt already posted.
Anyway, its good to see they will be hosting TV Shows, if there put on Free To Air t.v then at the end of the day they should be freely available to download on the net.
You pay for a t.v license to watch shows on t.v, You pay for broadband to do the same on pc except get it slightly earlier.
@18
u british…….. who pays for a tv license. i would assume that people would watch there favorite shows on the shows network website. some of the channels host there own shows like abc, cbs nbc etc..
i gave my email in a few months back but didn’t receive an invite yet
I guess in a few weeks… I hope canadians will be able to benefit this thing.
tv license? never heard of that..
TV’s are very dangerous in Britain, so much so, that you must have a license to poses one. Failure to do so results in a fine and even imprisonment, and in some cases, the death penalty.
But seriously, yes we have a TV license, it pays for the BBC which has no ads, and frankly, I say no reason not to pay a TV license, I don’t see anyone else insulting the queen on TV.
Yeah we have to pay for a license to watch colour television (think your exempt or its cheaper if you own a black and white t.v) and if you get found out without one you can get fined.
I thought it was happening everywhere though and didnt think it was just for BBc 1 and 2 due to no adverts on them channels.
Heres another example then:
You can record the top 10 from the radio with a tape – why not download a single from the net?
This marketing strategy is stupid. You subscribe and wait for an invitation for who knows when ? Like building anticipation. I get it……in this case it’s really stupid, it’s not like building up for DTK Batman…..
I’m pretty confident that this isn’t for Canadian residents, which makes me pretty angry. The stupid CRTC makes everything harder for Canadians.
And there I was thinking all stupid names were already taken.
@1-5
Get a life please.
in the uk if you own a tv you need to get a tv license, which costs about £130 per year, and some of this goes to the bbc to fund their channels, so even if you dont watch a bbc channel you still need the license. this covers the house and you can have as many tv’s as you wish. if you want cable [Virgin] or satellite [Sky] you pay the monthly fees. from £10 to £80 depends on what channel mix you want. or we have a free to air digital service called freeview which has 30 or so channels, which replaces terrestrial tv over the comming years.
@simon
yipp! thats pretty much it!
Harrow
Hulu in Farsi(persian or Iranian Language) means Peach.
the whole thing is a god idea but when is it gonna happen?I hope we can get it in Europe too.
peace
sorry, I meant “a good idea”
this is just all crap im not after single episodes i want live streaming channels ..only 1 out there right now is fox 5
Wow so will they make you buy internet license when ppl start just watching tv on thier computer? Or if you have a hdtv card in your rig lik me do you still have to get a tv license?
@simon
Thats a fairly expensive license (sounds like what we in America would call a tax) at $260/yr.
Does Britain actually have “TV Police” that check on those who have not purchased a license and search their homes to be sure they are not hiding a TV somewhere in the house? How is this enforced?
@Larry
Not so expensive if you do the math. BBC programming covers a wide range, so it’s fairly equal to “basic cable” in the US. The lack of quantity is made up for by the lack of advertisements.
So in the UK $260 is ~$22/mo for a household, US basic is ~$40 or $480. Plus US companies ding you for having multiple TVs/receivers, state and federal taxes, yada yada. Theoretically, I could get VHF over the air for free, but I haven’t lived anywhere an antenna was able to pick up more than two channels in a long time.
This looks really good! I only hope that you can save the videos to your pc, cause i don’t want to have to download the videos each time i view it! Apart from that the site looks awesome, and the setup is sweeett!
Some TV Shows will not be available outside US, so that makes me use torrents. When they will be in the mood to release them in Europe, it will be too late, because most of the people already watched them.
41
@43 you’re an idiot.
there are many other-already working everywhere-sites that gives similar shows like “www.tv-links.co.uk” or “www.veoh.com”
Check them out!!
As long as this service has no adds, and good quality image/sound I will be happy to pay for the shows I am interested in. Death to todays regular broadcasting TV channels!!! I hate them
@larry
true… but how many people you know stop with just basic cable?
seriously, i’ve seen peoples bills at $200 for the *month*. granted, they were being raped by their cable co.
irony is i might pay $22/mo for full public bbc, since most everything i watch is aired on it. not saying a license system doesn’t have problems, just that state of things in the US (cable monopolies, bad pricing, silly “package” deals, etc) are set up to screw consumers right now. to watch say, Heroes, I’d end up paying about $55/mo plus having to watch advertisements every 15 min.
might explain why i’m on this site.
For the students:
Yeah they do investigate people not having a tv license through the computers in which a fine is imposed – courts can play a part in this.
A T.V license only covers being able to watch the 5 terrestrial tv channels (we dont have any more than them unless using freeview etc.
5 channels or more)