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Posts tagged Fox
Hulu is Finally Live
Mar 12th
Hulu.com, a joint venture of NBC Universal (a division of General Electric) and News Corporation, has finally opened to the public.
I have been a Hulu beta tester since the site launched last fall and am pleased to say that despite my initial skepticism, Hulu is a quality product.
Hulu.com combines the massive television and film libraries of NBC Universal and News Corp.’s family of studios which enables them to offer more free streaming content than anyone else around. Unlike Netflix which offers streaming television and movies to its paid subscribers, Hulu is free to use because it is supported entirely by advertising.
Each show or movie has a few 30 second commercial breaks inserted. Shows currently airing such as “30 Rock,†“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,†“House,†and a many, many others are online now. Older series are being added all the time. These range from “The Pretender†and “The A-Team†to “I Dream of Jeannie.†A full list of the some 350 shows offered can be viewed here.
The beta version of Hulu was limited to television and as of today, Hulu now offers users full length movies. “Ice Age,†“Man on the Moon,†“The Big Lebowski,†and some 150 others are already available — either full length or clips — and Hulu promises that more are on the way. Newer content is offered in standard (360p) or high resolution (480p).
Last April, I suggested that Joost, a content streaming startup, might be the next big thing to change the way people watch television. While Joost did not end up making much of an impact (other than crashing a few computers and hogging bandwidth), Hulu is a clear step forward for the studios and for consumers of entertainment.
Check it out for yourself at hulu.com.
State of the Union Ratings Sag
Jan 30th
President Bush’s final State of the Union address that aired live on Monday night was his least watched, according to the Associated Press.
An estimated 37.5 million watched Bush’s address to Congress Monday night, which was broadcast live on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Univision and Telemundo.
With the nation riveted by the campaign to succeed him, Bush’s State of the Union was down from last year’s count of 45.5 million.
This reaffirms his lame duck status and will make it very difficult for his administration to accomplish much of anything in the next year. The AP reports that President Bush’s most-watched State of the Union address came in 2003, drawing more than 62 million viewers (according to Nielsen Media Research).