NBCU, Fox Raise Curtain on Hulu
Online-Video Venture Launch Private Beta, Start Distributing Content to Portal Partners
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 10/29/2007 4:11:00 AM
Hulu, the online-video joint venture formed by NBC Universal and News Corp. in March, on Sunday kicked off a closed beta test of the service and this week will begin delivering content to its Web-portal partners, including AOL, Comcast, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo.
In a blog posting on the venture’s site on Sunday, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said the company has begun sending out invitations to access the private beta version of the service. He didn’t indicate when Hulu expects to officially launch.
“The team here is excited to gather real user feedback. … You should expect to see us adding more content and more functionality throughout the private beta period and beyond,” Kilar’s post said.
Hulu will host an unspecified amount of TV content, including full episodes of NBC’s The Office and Heroes, Fox’s Prison Break and The Simpsons. The site will also have “a large number of classic television series,” Kilar promised, including Arrested Development, Miami Vice, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The A-Team.
Initial advertisers for the Hulu beta include Cisco Systems, Intel, General Motors and Toyota. The beta test of Hulu will also include an initial selection of feature films that includes Conan the Barbarian, Sideways and The Blues Brothers, according to Kilar’s post. The movies apparently will, like the TV episodes, be free and ad-supported.
Some full episodes provided via Hulu, including NBC’s Bionic Woman and Fox’s 24, now appear on Comcast’s Fancast.com portal with various “expiration dates.”
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Hulu late Friday closed deals with Sony Pictures Television and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios to also distribute some of their content. The paper also said CBS has held talks with Hulu about providing TV shows to Hulu.
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