Wo Hoo! - New Hulu is Free!

Happy New Year!

Now that Christmas has drained and emptied your wallet, here is a nice, refreshing, free concept: Hulu. First announced back in October, Hulu allows you to watch TV shows, clips and movies on its site. You may remember the controversy some months back regarding NBC pulling out of the iTunes Music Store. Since that happened, NBC switched directions, and instead of selling its shows on iTunes, you can view NBC shows (and much more) on one main site.

In a nutshell, Hulu is an online video on demand service that is Flash-based and supported by ads. The lengths of the ads are about the same as if you were watching it on NBC’s website, so it’s really not too bad. Additionally, you can share your own videos via e-mail or embed them onto your website. You can choose to share an entire video or select your own start and stop points to create a custom clip. The site’s interface is simple to use, and you can vary your video viewing experience from full screen to having the video player open in the corner of your monitor.

“We’re excited to bring a wide selection of popular content to fans, on-demand and free - from full episodes and clips of hit shows like Heroes, House, The Office and The Simpsons, to feature films like The Blues Brothers and Sideways,” said Jason Kilar, chief executive officer of Hulu.

“The launch with our distribution partners as well as our beta is an important first step in delivering a service that lets people enjoy their favorites, anytime, anywhere.” At the moment, Hulu is in private beta, so you need to sign up to receive an invitation, and use/participate in it. Once you are able to access the site, it allows you to view a wide variety of full-length episodes, clips and feature films. Some of Hulu’s partners include MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Bravo, CNET, E! Entertainment Television, Fox Reality, FX Networks, G4TV, Gamespot.com, Golf Channel, National Geographic, Oxygen, Smithsonian Networks, Sci Fi Network, TV Guide, USA Network and more (and still growing).

“NBC Universal is excited to give consumers the flexibility to enjoy our most popular shows online when, where and how they want,” said Jeff Zucker, president and chief executive officer, NBC Universal. “Hulu’s clean and crisp destination site, broad distribution network and embeddable video player make for a powerful combination and will provide substantial reach to consumers online.”

So far, Hulu seems to be fairly good, with only a couple of shortcomings I have to mention. All the TV shows I searched for were there, but narrowing the search to certain dates, I noticed that the selection for the archive is not complete. My second complaint is that shows are not posted in a timely manner after they air. Other than that, it’s a very smooth web-site. Sign up for your free Hulu account or see the complete show lineup at www.hulu.com. Be patient - if you are approved to participate in this beta, it takes a little while to have your login sent to you. It took me about three weeks to receive mine.

While you’re waiting for your beta acceptance to be approved, you can see some of Hulu’s partner sites for clips: aol.com, fancast.com, msn.com, myspace.com or yahoo.com. The difference is Hulu combines these all into one place to go (and then some).