Hulu

Type	Joint venture
Founded	March 2007
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Area served	United States and its overseas territories, Japan
Key people	Jason Kilar[1] (CEO)
Revenue	$420 million (2011)[2][3]
Owner	NBCUniversal (32%)[4] Fox Entertainment Group (31%) Disney-ABC Television Group (27%) Providence Equity Partners (10%)
Slogan	Anywhere, Anytime
Website	http://www.hulu.com
Alexa rank	224 (June 2012[update])[5]
Type of site	Video on demand
Advertising	Proprietary. Streaming video with complementary banners. Interrupts streaming video service, modeled after broadcast Television.
Registration	Not required for public content. Affords additional personalization features. Registration and subscription required for HULU Plus content.
Users	apx.1.5 million HULU Plus subscribers (2011)[6][7] Unknown number of free content viewers.
Available in	English (U.S.), (Japan)
Launched	HULU Syndication Network = October 29, 2007[8] HULU.com destination site = March 12, 2008[8]
Current status	Active
Screenshot 200px July 26, 2009

Hulu is a website and over-the-top (OTT) subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, Nickelodeon, and many other networks and studios. Hulu videos are currently offered only to users in Japan and the United States and its overseas territories.^[9] Hulu provides video in Flash Video format, including many films and shows that are available in 288p, 360p, 480p, and in some cases, 720 HD. Hulu also provides web syndication services for other websites including AOL, MSN, MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo!, and Comcast's xfinityTV.

Hulu is a joint venture of NBCUniversal (Comcast/General Electric),^[10] Fox Entertainment Group (News Corp) and Disney-ABC Television Group (The Walt Disney Company),^[11] with funding by Providence Equity Partners, the owner of Newport Television, which made a US$100 million equity investment and received a 10% stake.^[12]

Name[link]

The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese words, hulu (simplified Chinese: 葫芦; traditional Chinese: 葫蘆; pinyin: húlú; Wade–Giles: hu-lu) "calabash, bottle gourd" and hulu (simplified Chinese: 互录; traditional Chinese: 互錄; pinyin: hùlù; Wade–Giles: hu-lu) "interactive recording". The company blog explains:

In Mandarin, Hulu has two interesting meanings, each highly relevant to our mission. The primary meaning interested us because it is used in an ancient Chinese proverb that describes the Hulu as the holder of precious things. It literally translates to "gourd," and in ancient times, the Hulu was hollowed out and used to hold precious things. The secondary meaning is "interactive recording." We saw both definitions as appropriate bookends and highly relevant to the mission of Hulu.^[13]

History[link]

The Hulu venture was announced in March 2007 with AOL, MSN, Facebook, Comcast, MySpace and Yahoo! planned as "initial distribution partners". Jason Kilar was named the CEO in June 2007.^[14][15] The name Hulu was chosen in late August 2007, when the website went live, with an announcement only and no content. It invited users to leave their email addresses for the upcoming beta test.^[16] In October, Hulu began the private beta testing by invitation, and later allowed users to invite friends.^[17] Hulu launched for public access in the United States on March 12, 2008.^[8] The first product to launch was the HULU Syndication network, which was designed and developed by the NBCUniversal team from New York, on 10-29-2007, followed by the HULU.com destinations site.

Hulu began an advertising campaign during NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII with an initial ad starring Alec Baldwin titled "Alec in Huluwood".^[18] The ad intended to humorously reveal "the shocking secret behind Hulu", portraying the site as being an "evil plot to destroy the world" by suggesting that Baldwin is really an alien in disguise.^[19] Advertisements have since aired featuring Eliza Dushku, Seth MacFarlane, Denis Leary, and Will Arnett.

On April 30, 2009, Disney announced that it would join the venture, purchasing a 27% stake in Hulu.^[11]

At an industry conference on October 21, 2009, News Corporation Deputy Chairman Chase Carey stated that Hulu "needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business" and that it would likely start charging for at least some content by 2010.^[20] Carey's comment jibes with other News Corp. heads, including Rupert Murdoch who has expressed a desire to charge for content with a number of on-line units.^[21]

Early in 2010, Hulu chief executive Jason Kilar said the service has made a profit in two quarters, and that the company could top $100 million in revenue by summer 2010, more than its income for all of 2009. ComScore says monthly video streams reached 903 million in January 2010, over three times the figure for a year earlier,^[22] and second only to YouTube.^[23]

Hulu Plus, a monthly subscription service, was launched in beta (preview) on June 29, 2010 and officially launched on November 17, 2010. Like the free version of Hulu, the video available on Hulu Plus also contains commercials. However, it offers subscribers an expanded content library in the form of full seasons and more episodes of shows already available through Hulu. Hulu Plus is available on a wide range of platforms, including:

• Blu-ray players (network-enabled)
• TiVo DVR boxes (Premiere, Premiere XL, and Premiere Elite models)
• Televisions (network-enabled Smart TVs)
• Smartphones
• Wii and Nintendo 3DS (By December 2012), PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 game consoles
• Roku Streaming Player
• WD TV Media Player

As of January 17, 2011, Hulu has streamed its own in-house web series The Morning After, a light-hearted pop-culture news show. It is produced by Hulu in conjunction with Jace Hall's HDFilms and stars Brian Kimmet and Ginger Gonzaga. Producing the show is a first for the company, which in the past has been primarily a content distributor.^[24]

Hulu has been identified as a possible candidate for an IPO by 2013.^[25] On August 16, 2010, a report revealed that Hulu is planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) which could value the U.S. video viewing site at more than $2 billion.^[26][27]

On June 21, 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported that an "unsolicited offer" caused Hulu to begin "weighing whether to sell itself."^[28]

Starting August 15, 2011, viewers of content from Fox and related networks will have to authenticate whether they subscribe to a paid cable or satellite service wherever Fox streams episodes, including Hulu, to be able to watch them the morning after the first airing. Non-subscribers will see those episodes delayed a week before they are viewable.^[29]

On October 13, 2011, Hulu and its owners have announced that they will not sell the video site after all. None of the bidders offered an amount that was satisfactory to its owners.^[30]

On October 28, 2011, Hulu announced that they had inked a five-year deal with The CW, giving the streaming site access to next-day content from five of the six major networks.^[31]

A little more than a year after the launch of Hulu Plus, the number of paying subscribers reaches 1.5 million paying subscribers.^[32]

On January 16, 2012, Hulu announced that it would be airing its first original script based program, titled Battleground, scheduled to air in February 2012. The program will air on Hulu's free web service rather than on Hulu Plus, their premium pay site. Battleground is described as a documentary style, political drama.^[33]

Hulu has decided to move into original programing. “The Fashion Fund” is now Hulu’s second series in less than a week. It is a six-part reality series, and the winner of the show will receive $300,000 to start their career.^[34]

It was reported that in 2011 Hulu made $420 million. The figure was $80 million short of the predicted revenue.^[35]

To continue with their original programming movement, Hulu announced there will be a total of seven original programs that are planned to air on their service. "Battleground," "Up To Speed" and a "Day In The Life" were already previously mentioned however on April 19 Hulu added four more shows to their list. Their four new shows are titled, “We Got Next,” “The Awesomes,” “Don’t Quit Your Daydream,” and “Flow.” Some of these programs will start airing in 2012, while others will premiere over the next few years.^[36]

On May 21st, 2012, Hulu announced it would be bringing star Kevin Smith to their line-up of original programming. Smith will be hosting a new show titled, "Spoilers" which will be a movie discussion show set to air during the summer of 2012. ^[37]

Features[link]

Hulu distributes video both on its own website and syndicates its hosting to other sites,^[38] and allows users to embed Hulu clips on their websites.^[8] In addition to NBC, ABC and Fox programs and movies, Hulu carries shows from other networks such as Current TV, PBS, USA Network, Bravo, Fuel TV, FX, NFL Network, Speed, Big Ten Network, Syfy, Style, Sundance, E!, G4, Versus, A&E, Oxygen and online comedy sources such as Onion News Network.^[39] Each supplier gets fifty to seventy percent of advertising revenue resulting from its content.^[22]

In November 2009, Hulu also began to establish partnerships with record labels to host music videos and concert performances on the site, including EMI in November 2009,^[40] and Warner Music Group in December 2009.^[41]

In early March 2010, headlines were made when Viacom announced that they were pulling two of the website's most popular shows,^[42] The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, off Hulu.^[42] The programs had been airing on Hulu since late 2008.^[43] A spokesman for Viacom noted: "In the current economic model, there is not that much in it for us to continue at this time. If they can get to the point where the monetization model is better, then we may go back."^[43] In February 2011, both shows were made available for streaming on Hulu once again.

Hulu on TV[link]

Since Hulu's inception, consumers have been able to watch Hulu on their TVs by simply connecting a computer with a streaming capable video card to the TV via HDMI or other connection. Additionally, the Hulu Plus service, fully launched in November 2010, allows first-party access to Hulu from a variety of Blu-ray linked TVs, integrated into Internet-connected televisions, iOS devices, gaming consoles, and set-top boxes.

In late June 2010, it was announced that a version of Hulu would be available to the iTunes App Store for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch running iOS4 or higher. Viewing the content on Hulu, however, requires a subscription.^[44]

On November 2010, Orb Networks announced the Orb TV box which streams Hulu on the TV for free when used in conjunction with a computer and a smartphone.^[45]

Hulu Desktop (Windows, Mac, and Linux)[link]

Hulu has released a beta version of Hulu Desktop, a standalone program for watching Hulu programming without a web browser. The program uses a 10-foot user interface and is designed to be compatible with existing computer remote controls. It requires a Flash player and runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Hulu Desktop does not currently support all content accessed through normal browser means.

The latest version of the software was released on February 10, 2011, bringing the version number to 0.9.14. The new version includes both bug fixes and also support for the new Hulu Plus subscription service..

Hulu on tablets[link]

Hulu Plus, the monthly subscription package, unlocks the iPad application that allows streaming of some, but not all Hulu content from Wi-Fi and Wireless data networks via a dedicated iPad app.

Hulu on smartphones[link]

Hulu Plus, the monthly subscription package, unlocks the Android application that allows streaming all Hulu content from Wi-Fi and Wireless data networks via a dedicated app users may download freely. Hulu Plus is also available on the iOS platform.

Programming[link]

Hulu includes programming from several sources, including:

Networks and channels[link]

• Fox: FOX, FX, Fox News, Fox Business
• NBC Universal: NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Syfy, Oxygen
• The Walt Disney Company: ABC, ABC Family
• The Biography Channel
• MTV Networks: MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, TV Land, Spike, Nickelodeon
• National Geographic Channel
• Public Broadcasting Service

An agreement was announced in October 2011 that will allow Hulu to offer CW Television Network content.^[46] Additionally, Hulu offers CBS Broadcasting content in Japan. CBS is the only major network that does not use Hulu to distribute content in the United States.

Producers and distributors[link]

• NBCUniversal
• Lionsgate
• Endemol
• MGM
• ABC
• News Corporation
• Viacom
• Sony Pictures
• Time Warner

Original and Exclusive[link]

• The Confession (2011)
• A Day in the Life (2011–12)
• Battleground (2012)
• Up to Speed (2012)
• Spy (2011 US Only)
• Misfits (2011 US Only)
• Whites (2011 US Only)
• The Booth at the End (2011 US Only)

Availability[link]

Currently, Hulu's content is only available in the United States and Japan with licensing reasons cited.^[9] However, many Internet users are able to get around Hulu's geo-location block using proxy services.^[47] Hulu was planning on launching in the UK and Ireland in September 2009, but as of April 2010 these had been abandoned for the foreseeable future after failure to sign any content deals.^[48] In July 2010, the Financial Times revealed that Hulu had been working on plans for an international launch of Hulu Plus for several months, and had identified the UK and Japan as markets where its free website and subscription model could feasibly work.^[49] Hulu chief executive Jason Kilar expressed his belief that the US model could be replicated elsewhere, saying "We won't be satisfied until this is a global service."^[50] Hulu's first expansion into an international market took place with the launching of service in Japan on September 1, 2011.^[51] Japanese users have access to a library of popular television shows such as the CSI franchise, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, and Prison Break, as well as movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Men in Black and Armageddon. In the near future, it will also add local content from Japan as well as entertainment from other Asian regions.^[52]

As of February 2009, Hulu has pulled its content from CBS Corp.'s TV.com, and from Boxee, a software firm that makes Internet video suitable for viewing on a large screen, like a television connected to a PC.^[53]

See also[link]

• Video on demand
• Digital rights management

References[link]