NBC Universal and News Corp. publicly launched Hulu a little more then a year ago as a gamble on television’s digital future. The website allows you to watch thousands of episodes from TV shows for free, from Desperate Housewives, The Office, etc. Hulu has a simple design, big catalog and no charge has already made it one of the most popular websites for watching video.
With 42 million views in March Hulu has already whizzed past Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN and is now at the heels of Google’e YouTube.
Late last month, Walt Disney Co. signed on as equity owner which has over 150 content partners. That gives the video site even more star power with Lost and Wizards of Waverly Place.
Companies like DirecTV, Time Warner Cable etc. pay cable networks billions of dollars each year to carry programming and they believe they should have exclusivity because they payments support the enormous costs of producing TV shows.. cable programming is one of Hollywood’s biggest profit centers.
But I really think there should be a way to make profit then by charging so much like DirecTV and Time Warner do. Do shows really cost that much? If so, maybe they should have a smaller budget. Reality shows don’t even pay the actors/actresses. I like this new free change. I hope it sticks around & Hulu can figure out how to make everyone (or at least some of the advertisers happy) in midst of all of this.
