Hulu, the anti-YouTube, launches

Matt Marshall | October 28th, 2007

hulu4.jpgHulu, the NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture designed to compete with video site YouTube, has launched a testing version of its site. But it is more of an anti-YouTube than a competitor, because it focuses less on user-generated content.

It comes after months of delay. NBC withdrew its video channel from YouTube last week, and also ditched Apple’s iTunes in favor of Amazon’s music service.

Hulu will be the exclusive online provider of videos from NBC and News Corp, and it will then syndicate the material to other sites, including AOL, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo, but apparently not YouTube.

Hulu got $100 million in backing from Providence Equity Partners, and arose because of animosity from NBC and News Corp toward YouTube, in part because that site kept hosting videos containing copyrighted videos.

NBC had warmed up to YouTube last year, working with the popular video site to promote its videos, until Jeff Zucker took over NBC in February. The company then changed its tune, and filed a lawsuit against YouTube.

You can register at the site, for a trial access.

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  1. October 28th, 2007
    10:38 pm

    My Ghillie » Hulu, the anti-YouTube, launches said:

    [...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt [...]

  2. October 29th, 2007
    2:06 am

    Hulu Has Launched Into Private Beta | Crenk said:

    [...] has been reported by VentureBeat that Hulu (the YouTube killer, lol) has gone into private testing today. As we already know this is [...]

  3. October 29th, 2007
    9:40 am

    Hulu, el anti Youtube « Informar Es Poco! said:

    [...] información en VentureBeat, [...]

  4. December 26th, 2007
    6:10 pm

    VentureBeat » Hulu launches private beta, faces challenge said:

    [...] It also remains to be seen whether Hulu can return enough money to justify the $100 million investment, made at a reported $1 billion valuation, obtained from Providence Equity Partners (see our previous coverage). [...]

  5. March 11th, 2008
    11:01 am

    Hulu prepares for prime time launch tomorrow » VentureBeat said:

    [...] previously written here and here. Silicon Alley Insider successfully predicted the launch last [...]

One Comment

  1. April 1st, 2008
    1:39 pm

    Anti-Hulu said:

    Hulu sucks, preventing me from watching movies and clips.. Hulu sucks big time

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