Hulu

This week at the NY Video 2.0 meeting, a variety of companies either demo'ed their service or provided a variety of business updates. If you are in the NYC tech or media scene, this might be the best monthly meetup to attend.

Here are the presenters:

1. Hulu - Kevin McGurn, VP National Sales (our coverage)
2. Move Networks - Bob Bryson, SVP Sales & BD
3. Boxee - Avner Ronen, Co-founder & CEO
4. MediaMerx - Tejpaul Bhatia, Co-founder & CEO
5. Visible Measures - Matt Cutler, VP Marketing & Analytics (our coverage)

If you want to jump around in the video, click play, then pause and wait for the loading bar to finish, then you can jump, jump around.

This afternoon Hulu CEO Jason Kilar appeared on Fox Business to discuss the public release of the Hulu online video/TV service. I've captured a video from the brief discussion and it's embedded below. Here is a transcript of the important parts (my emphasis):

"Already the business model is proving itself, which is we support the service through advertising and there's a strong enough demand that we are actually getting higher rates than on broadcast, specifically even in primetime tv...advertising is sold on a CPM basis and we are very fortunate to be in a position that the advertising bought on Hulu is even higher than that on primetime."

"The common thread between the two is that Amazon is one of the best companies in the world at focusing on the user experience. And that's exactly what Hulu is, in obsessed as well. That's what gets us out of bed in the morning, why we show up to work and often times stay until 3 AM in the morning."

Perhaps Kilar has been reading the also LA-based Calacanis Employee Manual.

Online television video provider Hulu has announced the opening of their beta program today. They are now allowing each current beta participant to invite 10 more people. If you'd like an invite, leave your info in the comments - email goes in the email field only!

Hulu is capitalizing on the SuperBowl by not only displaying all of the commercials from the game, but also selling a sponsorship against them! This might be the first time that a commercial sponsors a commercial.

Come inside to view the currently highest rated SuperBowl ad - it's with Justin Timberlake for Pepsi.

I've enjoyed using Hulu for several weeks now. The quality is good, the technology works well and so far no errors. The success of Hulu is dependent on their partner Web sites. For example, I could see my mom using AOL Video to watch reruns of Murder She Wrote, but getting her to go to hulu.com might be more difficult.

AOL and MSN were the first partner Web sites to feature hulu content. Today I noticed for the first time that AOL is pushing hulu to its software customers -- those who use the full AOL application (and yes, I do use the AOL application). The link appears within the mail function and normally the link (in purple) is for an ad partner.

When you click on the graphic, it takes you to AOL Video and directly into the Hulu section. It's a smart move by AOL to start to move its base of customers into hulu through AOL Video where they can monetize the videos beyond the in-video ads provided by hulu. The only suggestion I have for AOL is to remove the hulu name and just promote the shows and clips as AOL Video content. It's not the same as noting "CBS" on a panel of content.

come inside for the screenshot

In the beginning, meebo was "just" a chat aggregator. Over time they have grown to add Rooms, a Platform and they are announcing a partnership tonight with Joost. Meebo will provide their Rooms technology for the 250 channels on the Joost network. Nielsen/NetRatings reports that Meebo is the fastest growing IM destination (they don't include eBuddy in the report).

Joost presented at the NY Video Meetup last week. I noticed a much improved user experience over the initial version I tested earlier this year. If you haven't tried Joost recently, I would try it again. Does the combo of Joost and Meebo leapfrog Hulu? If the integration is seamless, it could be pretty sweet. The part I am unclear about is whether the Meebo Rooms for the channels will be embedded into the Joost interface or a link to the Meebo room will be provided.

"Participation in community activities has emerged as one of the most significant trends in consumer behavior," said Mike Volpi, CEO of Joost. "By offering our viewers a robust channel chat option, they can chat with people interested in the same shows and subjects - and ultimately customize and enrich their entertainment experiences."

"Even in an on-demand environment like Joost, people can experience live community around popular channels and shows," said Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder, meebo. "According to a recent internal survey at meebo, 25% of meebo users IM while watching TV - there's a lot more we can be doing to connect people who share a common passion around a specific show or genre."

Check out our interview with Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg.

It appears what they said on the Drudge Report is true. Hulu is in the process of launching from what I can tell. The site is moving into production (still on a private beta). So far CenterNetworks does not have an invite but if you do, please report in on how the application works.

They do have a groovy new logo (see left) and a Memphisto blog. In the meantime, check out our previous Hulu coverage.

More details as they come in.

Update: Liz at NewTeeVee has a lengthy review of the application.

Update: Full show lineup inside! »

Owen over at Valleywag found that the NBC channel on YouTube has been pulled. He also wonders if this is a sign of the upcoming launch of Hulu. On the Hulu Web site, CEO Jason Kilar notes, "The Hulu private beta will be available in October." Ten days left to make that deadline.

We heard about the new name in August but there has been no news since. I guess once the first private beta testers get their hands on the app, we will see more. The Hulu privacy policy makes it clear that they will want to know everything about you including a good bit of personally indentifiable information (PII). They will walk a fine line with just how much information they require to use the service.

What will YouTube look like if more networks/shows pull out?

This just in... the un-named online video venture from News Corp. and NBC Universal now has a name: Hulu. Details are just coming in but here is the release:

Los Angeles, California — Aug. 29, 2007 — News Corp. and NBC Universal today announced that "Hulu" is the official name of their online video joint venture and that the private beta will be available in October.

Starting today, interested users can submit their email address at hulu.com to be included in an invite list for the private beta. The Hulu beta is expected to be open to a limited number of users and continue to grow as the Hulu development team continues to scale the site and address user feedback.

Visit http://hulu.com and click on the "Find out more" link to read a message from the CEO, Jason Kilar. Ongoing details and updates about Hulu will also be made available on http://hulu.com.

The "unnamed" video startup from NBC and News Corp now has a CEO. Announced this morning by Peter Chernin and Jeff Zucker, Jason Kilar from Amazon will lead the joint venture based in Los Angeles, CA. Kilar will report to the Board which includes Chernin and Zucker.

The release has a bit of fluff including: The company's video-rich site will debut later this year with thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips from myriad networks and two major film studios and with an unparalleled reach. With distribution partners AOL, CNET, Comcast, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo!, the new venture will have access to 98 percent of the monthly U.S. unique users on the Internet.

Interesting that MySpace is launching MySpace TV and YouTube is not listed. Could this help MySpace pick up some steam in it's battle against YouTube?

From the release:

"Jason's product and consumer expertise in the world of e-commerce is arguably unrivaled in this business and gives him a great insight into what it takes to create a superior user interface," commented Mr. Chernin.

"We are very pleased to have an executive of Jason's caliber take the reins of our groundbreaking joint venture. Jason is a proven leader and innovator with a wealth of experience on both the technology and content sides of the equation. He is the right person to make sure our new initiative offers a consumer experience worthy of remark," said Mr. Zucker.

Liz at NewTeeVee has some additional information on the announcement and Om discusses the startup's valuation at $1 billion.