December 17, 2007
On Internet Broadcasting…
Recently I saw a positive review of Hulu.com, the joint effort of media giants News Corp. and NBC Universal, which is currently in beta testing stages. With these two mega media giants come a wealth of network content, from NBC to Fox to Sci-Fi to FX and more. I decided to check it out, and while it took me over a month to be accepted into the beta program, it was worth the wait.
Hulu is a step in the right direction. It works by allowing members to view, watch and even share episodes online. Like the current broadcasting business model, they make their money solely on advertising. Ads run periodically in the timeline of every episode and cannot be paused or fast forwarded. The ads are brief and sparse, so the convenience tradeoff is small. Hulu is far from perfect, but it shows promise for the future of broadcasting.
