[qi:_newteevee] The long-awaited and much-derided NBC (GE) and News Corp (NWS) joint venture Hulu will make a somewhat public debut this week, opening up a private beta tonight of its web video service and initiating distribution of its movies, TV shows, and mashups on AOL (TWX), Comcast (CMCSA), MSN (MSFT), MySpace, and Yahoo (YHOO). Full report on NewTeeVee.com. Will it be able to beat YouTube and other players in the online video portal game? Take our poll (below the fold)
Related & Previous Coverage of Hulu:
Big Media vs YouTube & Google: Smart or Not. Also: NBC confirms pulling YouTube content for Hulu and No more NBC shows on iTunes
Mad Money & Battle For The 10th Spot
NewCo now has new CEO
Is NewCo really worth a billion dollars?
NewCo: Nuts & Bolts from an Insider.
IMO, I see this as the end of Youtube as we know it. It became a popular destination only because people could find the premium content, not for the jamie-vomits-on-cam typa videos. These home-made videos got some views BCOZ people who came to watch premium content browsed around too, mostly. Just the other day I was hunting for FRIENDS show online, I did go to youtube but found no episodes — naturally, ended up on stage6 after getting bored with a couple of stupid home made videos.
BUT, if there is a site that has good quality content, why would I go to youtube as much?? Granted once in a while, but certainly the viewership would drop drastically with more and more premium content being pulled off. For sure.
I agree with you to a large extent, but i think we are beginning to see the audiences will now be looking for different content in different places.
It also offers different revenue opportunities for content owners. Ad supported streaming on their own destination sites, for-pay downloads on iTunes and other such stores, and short clips (ad-backed) on sites like YouTube are three ways to monetize their content. Joost type distribution platforms are another option.
Thoughts Joe?
This looks like a great service and an interesting launch with competitive advantage. The only problem is if it will be blocked to the US only. This will only increase p2p downloading of shows in other countries instead of growing the overseas market share directly. Overseas partners will still be necessary for supplying the localized dubbed or subtitled versions so they shouldn’t suffer.
you guys are wrong. All the top videos are all not premium content, just look at the history. Youtube is just America’s funniest video’s on crack. i thik the are near peek market penetration and they will die down in the future. I like at them as the napster of video, the best thing that happen to them was to be bought by google. also they could have have gotten alot more of the sale. They should take a page from facebook’s ….. book.
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You guys seem tobe avoiding its impact on Joost et al, surely its closer to that than YouTube?
I think Hulu will do well for high-quality videos of premium content.
However, this is far from a YouTube killer – especially since Hulu is only available in the US. If they open worldwide then YouTube may have something to worry about, but until then there’s plenty of marketshare for YouTube.
So much for a clown company. I have always believed that it’s not comedy show that has made youtube popular, it’s normal people’s comedy video.