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, TBS, and many other networks and studios. Hulu videos are currently offered only to users in United States of America and its overseas territories and is blocked by ip address location from user outside US. Hulu provides video in Flash Video format, including many films and shows that are available in 288p, 360p, 480p, and in some cases, 720p 1080 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 Television Group (Comcast), Fox Broadcasting Company (News Corp) and Disney-ABC Television Group (The Walt Disney Company), with funding by Providence Equity Partners, the owner of Newport Television, which made a US$100 million equity investment and received a 10% stake. In October 2012, Providence sold its 10% stake in Hulu. 
 

 

Name

The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese words, húlú (葫芦/葫蘆), "calabash; bottle gourd", and hùlù (互录/互錄), "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.

 

History

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.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. In October, Hulu began the private beta testing by invitation, and later allowed users to invite friends.

 

Hulu launched for public access in the United States on March 12, 2008.[5] The first product to launch was the HULU Syndication network, which was designed and developed by the NBCUniversal team from New York, on October 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". 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. 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.

 

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. 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 online units. 

 

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, and second only to YouTube. 

 

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:

 

• Apple TV

• Blu-ray players (network-enabled)

• TiVo DVR boxes (Premiere, Premiere XL, and Premiere Elite models)

• Televisions (network-enabled Smart TVs)

• Smartphones

• Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, 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.

 

Hulu has been identified as a possible candidate for an IPO by 2013. On August 16, 2010, a report revealed that Hulu is planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) which could value the company at more than $2 billion. 

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

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. 

 

On October 13, 2011, Hulu and its owners have announced that they will not sell the company, as none of the bidders offered an amount that was satisfactory to its owners. 

 

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. 

 

A little more than a year after the launch of Hulu Plus, the number of paying subscribers reached 1.5 million paying subscribers. 

 

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. 

Later that same month, Hulu announced it would air The Fashion Fund, a six-part reality series, and the winner of the show will receive $300,000 to start their career.

 

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

 

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 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.

 

On May 21, 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.

 

Beginning October 2012, WWE programs SmackDown, NXT, Main Event and Superstars are available in full on Hulu Plus while only half of Raw can be viewed.

 

Features

Hulu distributes video on its own website and syndicates its hosting to other sites, and allows users to embed Hulu clips on their websites. In addition to NBC, ABC and Fox programs and movies, Hulu carries shows from networks such as Current TV, ION Television, 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. Hulu retains between thirty and fifty percent of advertising revenue generated by the shows it distributes. 

 

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, and Warner Music Group in December 2009. 

 

In early March 2010, Vivendi announced that it was pulling two of the website's most popular shows, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, off Hulu. The programs had been airing on Hulu since late 2008. A spokesman for Vivendi noted that "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." In February 2011, both shows were made available for streaming on Hulu again.

 

Hulu on TV

Since Hulu's inception, consumers have been able to watch Hulu on their TVs by connecting a computer with a streaming capable video controller 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 players, Internet-connected televisions, iOS devices, gaming consoles, and set-top boxes.

 

In late June 2010, Hulu announced that a version of the service would be available to the iTunes App Store for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch running iOS version 4 or higher. Viewing the content on Hulu, however, requires a subscription. 

 

In 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. 

 

Hulu Desktop (Windows, Mac, and Linux)

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 cannot currently play all content that the website can. Since Hulu Desktop as good add-on for thing's like Windows MCE may be all shows support will added down the road.

 

Hulu on tablets

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 Plus is also available for the Android platform.

 

Hulu on smartphones

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 iOSplatform.

 

Programming

Hulu includes programming from many sources, including:

 

Networks and channels

• Fox: Fox, FX, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, National Geographic Channel

• NBC Universal: NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Syfy, Oxygen

• The Walt Disney Company: ABC, ABC Family

• A&E Television Networks: The Biography Channel

• Turner Broadcasting System: TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, truTV, CNN, Adult Swim

• AMC Networks

• ION Television

• Warner Brothers: The CW

• Food Network: Cooking Channel

• National Geographic

• History Channel

• A&E

 

An agreement was announced in October 2011 that will allow Hulu to offer The CW Television Network content.[45] Additionally, Hulu offers CBS Broadcasting content in Japan.

 

Producers and distributors

• NBCUniversal

• Dreamworks SKG

• Endemol

• Cablevision

• ABC

• News Corporation

• Sony Pictures

• Time Warner

 

Hulu Original Series

• A Day in the Life (2011–2012)

• Battleground (2012)

• Spoilers (2012)

• Up to Speed (2012)

• The Wrong Mans (2013) (upcoming)

• Behind the Mask (upcoming)

• The Awesomes (upcoming)

 

Hulu Exclusive

• All My Children (2013-)

• The Booth at the End (2011 US & Japan)

• Coronation Street (2013-)

• Endgame

• The Fashion Fund

• Fresh Meat (2012 US Only)

• Line of Duty

• Misfits (2011 US Only)

• Mongrels (2011 US Only)

• Mother Up (2013) (upcoming)

• One Life to Live (2013-)

• The Only Way Is Essex

• Pramface (2012 US Only)

• Prisoners of War

• The Promise (2013)

• Rev. (2011 US Only)

• Spy (2011 US Only)

• The Straits

• The Thick of It (2012 US Only)

• Whites (2011 US Only)

• The Yard (2011 US Only)

 

Availability

Currently, Hulu's content is only available in the United States of America with licensing reasons cited it not even available in Canada a country that does get US tv shows the same time or near enough . 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. 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. 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." Hulu's first expansion into an international market took place with the launching of service in Japan on September 1, 2011. 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. 

 

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.