Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu.com spoke at Madrona’s annual meeting earlier today and he was kind enough to give us a sneak peak. Of course, for thousands of technorati, who already have been beta users, the launch scheduled for today is not news. Hulu is focused exclusively on discovery, navigation, and consumption of premium content, so YouTubers need not apply.
Initially skeptical of hulu’s plans to be primarily a destination site, I think Jason and team have done a nice job of embracing web openness. They’re living by Fred Wilson’s rules of digital media.
It’s Chunkable – users control entry and exit points on embeds.
It’s Unlocked – No DRM (as far as I could tell) but there is geo blocking for US only. No doubt, rights related.
It’s Portable – users can embed hulu content in their own sites. No word if an API exists but it should appear at some point. All hosted by hulu.
It’s Monetized – hulu is inserting 1 ad (instead of 4) into commercial breaks and also trying out some sponsorships and overlay graphics.
Secondly, they’ve embraced Flash with H.264 so the content looks fantastic. It’s scalable, it’s DVD or better quality, and will scale to large monitors. This is the first service, I’d even consider connecting to my flat screen.
The content is compelling as well. Both current and no longer available shows are catalogued. I’m sure money quotes from famous scenes will be appearing all over the web quite soon.
I’m sure there were (and will be) challenges keeping certain factions of the corporate parents happy as they have different and often competing agendas than Hulu. But Jason, George Kliavkoff and Co. have done a good job of getting the “internal” rights to launch a native digital service.
It’ll be interesting to see what CBS, Viacom and ABC do. Quincy, any hints?
