Video website service Hulu, led by Jason Kilar and joint partnership between NBC, FOX, and Disney is not happy with the way that Nielsen has been reporting their traffic figures.  In March, Nielsen reported that Hulu received about 8.9 million visitors, but comScore reported 42 million.

Generally when traffic is monitored, it makes the most sense to collect the data from servers directly.  Third party figures are usually off because there are many other variables.  What irked Hulu the most was Nielsen’s reporting of the unique visitors.

Nielsen reported that Hulu’s video streams in 373 million streams in April, 348 million in March, and 309 million in February.  But then they said that Hulu’s uniques in April were 7.4 million, 8.9 million in March, and 9.5 million in February.

Hulu did receive a spike in traffic after the Super Bowl, but measuring analytics firm Quantcast did not report a drop in traffic.  To track analytics a snippet of Quantcast code is embedded into a website.  “There is more work that can be done with all of our research providers to ensure that online video metrics are accurately represented to users and clients,” stated Hulu SVP of Advertising Jean-Paul Colaco.

With the recent blockbuster hit movie Slumdog Millionaire, Bollywood has gained a much bigger following.  Considering that Bollywood is the largest film producer in the world, it only makes sense to see some of them arrive on Hulu.  Saavn is the distribution company that helped bring Bollywood movies to Hulu.

“Making some of the best Bollywood films available on Hulu is very exciting to us,” stated Co-Founder and CEO of  Saavn Vin Bhat in a press release. “One of Saavn’s goals is to make Bollywood more accessible for everyone and by having these films on Hulu, we believe that more people in the U.S. will open up to the genre that is revered by billions around the world.”

So far the five Bollywood movies that have been made available on Hulu include Sarkar, Hera Pheri, Deewana, Hulchul, and Dhai Akshar Prem Ke.   As of right now Bollywood doesn’t have its own Channel on Hulu, but I’m sure it will once more content in this area is added.

Late last month, Disney bought a percentage of Hulu so shows that are aired from ABC will be added going forward.

Disney has decided to jump on board with online video streaming by sending over content over to Hulu.  That’s not all.  Disney has acquired 27% of the company.  Disney joins other Hulu owners NBC Universal, News Corporation, and Providence Equity Partners.  Soon Disney will be sending over shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy to start with.

“We are smiling big today because we are honored to be working with a company that quite frankly inspired us from the very start of Hulu. Walt Disney was a founder, an innovator, a person with an atypically high quality bar, and someone who was maniacal in his obsession to delight his customers. Hulu has always taken great inspiration in that example and the culture Walt Disney created (which Bob Iger and his team carry forward and push to new levels),” stated the Hulu blog regarding the partnership.

CBS and the CW are basically the only major TV networks left out of Hulu.  CBS is hosting high quality episodes of their own TV shows on CBS.com and TV.com.  The CW hosts full TV shows on their website too.

CBS is working on ways to compete against Hulu.  The CBS.com website has been thoroughly enhanced to stream high-quality episodes of their TV shows and these videos are linked to TV.com, a website that is owned by CBS as well.  Hulu removed their shows from TV.com recently.

In March, TV.com received about 679,000 unique U.S. visitors and streamed 3.4 million videos.  In February, TV.com has about 330,000 unique U.S. visitors and streamed only 1.6 million videos.  Hulu received abut 8.9 million U.S. visitors in March and streamed 349 million videos.  Hulu is run by NBC and FOX.

[via BusinessInsider]

Hulu, the video website run by NBC and FOX has loads of popular shows that they allow people to watch. They have three seasons of Arrested Development, new episodes of Family Guy, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Chuck, Heroes, etc. Now a source at Silicon Alley Insider says that a deal for Disney content to appear on Hulu is basically done.

That means on Hulu we would perhaps see content from ESPN, ABC, and some Disney movies. If the deal works out with Disney and ABC shows starts to appear on Hulu, that only leaves CBS out as the outcast. ABC and CBS both currently steam shows on their website. CBS has very good quality, but ABC not as much.

[via BI/VentureBeat]

Seth MacFarlane is best known for creating TV shows Family Guy and American Dad.  Family Guy has been a cult hit for the last several years and has kept The Simpsons on their heels. In this commercial, MacFarlane busts out his Stewie Griffin, Peter Griffin, Quagmire, and Roger the Alien voice. MacFarlane is the highest paid TV writer and producer in history at about $100 million.

MacFarlane is signed a deal last June with Google to put together a series of advertisements called Calvacade of Cartoon Comedy. My personal favorite is the Super Mario skit.

The video website that was put together by FOX and NBC has turned one years old.  The company has done a lot in that one year.  Currenly the website is top 300 on Alexa and sits at #49 on Quantcast, indicating that they get a good number of hits every month.  They even had their first commercial which aired during the Super Bowl and starred Alec Baldwin.  That commercial resulted in a 50% increase in traffic.

Before Hulu was introduced, many people doubted that the company would ever match YouTube’s success but they’ve proved the world wrong.

A feature that Hulu will be rolling out soon is a social network within the site.  This is where you can inform other users what you are watching.  Hulu has about 1,150 shows and about 550 movies on the site.  They had about 24 million viewers in January and streamed 250 million videos.

[via USA Today]

John Battelle of Federated Media recently interviewed Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu.  Hulu is a joint venture between NBC and FOX.  Jason Kilar is an Amazon.com veteran.  Battelle asked Jason how effective the ad on the Super Bowl advertisement for Hulu was.  It turns out that it was very much worth it.

Although Jason did not answer directly, Battelle was able to obtain a number from a different source.  It turns out that Hulu’s traffic jumped by 50%.  Considering that about 100 million people tune into the Super Bowl in the U.S., it is no surprise that Hulu’s traffic would see a sudden jump.

[via BI]

Social media will be in full effect during Inauguration day.  Tweets will be sent back-and-forth, Flickr enthusiasts will be snapping pictures away, live streams of the event will be all over the Internet, and people will be able to watch the event from their mobile phones.

Twitter: Tweet tweet!  The amount of tweets being sent back-and-forth on Twitter tomorrow will be so substantial that the company is doubling their capacity.  Current TV and Twitter have partnered to showcase interesting tweets throughout the day tomorrow.

Live Streaming: The New York Times, Hulu, Joost, and UStream.tv will be live streaming the inauguration event.   Anyone that owns an iPhone can watch the inauguration on their phone using UStream’s iPhone application.

Flickr: Flickr will is hosting an event at a bar nearby the inauguration in Washington D.C.  Photo enthusiasts will be able to see images pulled from the election and from the induction ceremony.

Microsoft and CNN are working on a way to release a digital panorama of the event using Microsoft’s Photosynth software.  Microsoft is looking for professional photographs and user-generated photos to put together a final panorama of the event.

Facebook and CNN have put together an event that will publish status messages of users on CNN.com Live.  The event is available at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=56799103571

iPhone Application: There is a free 2009 Presidential Inauguration Guide iPhone application available for those who are travelling to D.C.  The application lets iPhone users look up public transit information, find Wi-Fi hot spots, and includes a Zagat guide for the city.

“Much of my work here is done.”
-George Kliavkoff

George Kliavkoff, the chief digital officer told the staff at NBC Universal that he will be exercising an option in his contract to step down by the end of they year.  Kliavkoff was one of the masterminds behind the launch of Hulu, the startup that shook the online video industry.

“George came to NBC Universal when we were nowhere in digital,” stated Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal. “We asked him to help us change the fundamental orientation of a traditional media company from an analog to a digital mindset. George did that.”  Kliavkoff also pushed for NBC’s role in broadcasting the past Olympics.

Where Will George Go From Here?
George indicated that he is interested in some sort of role as an investor, digital startup, or digital startup within a traditional company.”

Below is the full e-mail that he sent to the company (via paidContent):

(more…)

Hulu.com is airing NBC’s 30 Rock one week earlier than the season premier.  This way it helps build up the hype of the show.  I love the idea of putting up a show on the web before it hits the television screen, especially one that wins an Emmy.  

30 Rock is a show that was created by famous Sarah Palin impression expert, Tina Fey.  The show stars Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin, Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski, Keith Powell, Judah Friedlander, Maulik Pancholy, Scott Adsit, Katrina Bowden, Lonny Ross, Kevin Brown, and Grizz Chapman.

The above video will be available for about another week. Showtime did the same thing with Dexter and Californication.

Hulu, the video network that was created as a partnership between FOX, NBC, and other video studios has add a channel listing to better sort the 900 TV and movies hosted on their site.  Channels include action/adventure, anime, sci-fi, home and garden, comedy, video games, etc.  Hulu will also be powering video recommendations and user forums built around their social network.  These features have arrived shortly after Joost announced that they are taking their video platform to the web.

IMDb recently started using Hulu to power the video section of their website too.  Hulu aims to find more filtered advertisers for specific channels.  For example, in the food and leisure section, Hulu is currently sponsored by Splenda.  Hulu receives about 100 million monthly video streams.  What I would like to see is more full movies added into Hulu’s collection.  In a way, Hulu is also directly competing against sites that host full movies illegally like AllUC.org. 

Hulu has an amazing user interface and the video quality on Hulu reigns supreme too.  But until they add more video content, users will stop by and watch a few episodes and not return until new clips are added.  What I’m finding is that Joost has more interesting content. 

Every weekday between today and mid-August, Hulu will be streaming a new movie, documentary, or sci-fi film.  The calendar of the films is available at: http://www.hulu.com/summer.  Here’s the catch: you won’t know what is playing until the day of.  While this is an annoying feature, I’m sure it’ll keep users coming back to Hulu out of curiosity.

Hulu’s first movie of the event is Lost in Translation starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray.  The movie is about a man that comes to Tokyo to film a whiskey commercial bonding with a woman that he would most likely not find himself getting along with.

Hulu Days of Summer has a widget too.  The widget can be embedded in blog posts, social networks, etc.  The widget can be seen below.

Hulu is a video website created through a partnership between NBC and FOX.  Hulu directly competes with Google’s YouTube.

Hulu is proving more and more everyday that they are not Clown Co. Hulu has just made a solid move for catering to those that prefer having RSS aggregation websites as their browser homepage.

Now Hulu has a way to add RSS feeds for several categories of videos on their site including: Recently Added Videos, Recently Added Shows, Highest Rated Videos, Most Popular Videos, Most Popular Videos This Week, Most Popular Videos This Month, Most Popular Videos All Time, Soon-To-Expire Videos.  Personally I’m going to take every one of these RSS feeds and add them to a separate tab on my current homepage, Netvibes.

There is also an Add Video check box that allows Hulu to embed the video within the RSS feed aggregation box.  This feature is not quite supported yet, but I’m sure it’s a work-in-progress.

What makes these RSS feeds interesting is that Feedburner powers them.  Feedburner is owned by Google and Google owns YouTube, a Hulu competitor. Oh, the irony.  No matter what you do on the web, it somehow connects to Google in some sort of degree.  Just like all of us are six degrees from Kevin Bacon, every Google competitor is 2 degrees away from Google.

Another interesting feature of Hulu is the ability to embed videos into social networks.  This will surely drive additional hits to Hulu.  Hulu is currently ranked 3,000 or so on Alexa and growing.  Below is a screen shot of Hulu in my Netvibes.

Great feature, keep it up Hulu team.

Hulu’s content is provided by Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) through NBC and warner Bros., General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) through NBC, MGM Mirage (NYSE:MGM), Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE), and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF),

If the rumor about what the Google executives previously dubbed NBC and News Corp.’s idea for Hulu is true, I see them as being completely hypocritical. Around March 2007, rumors were afloat that News Corp. and NBC were parterning to develop a YouTube competitor and Google executives were supposedly not worried about it because they were reportedly nicknaming the company that didn’t exist at the time as ClownCo. Today that company is named Hulu and they have impressed the hell out of several media bloggers including Pulse 2.0, TechCrunch, and GigaOM. Mashable seemed to have a more undecided opinion about how Hulu will perform in the market.

The reason why Google would give such a nickname to the company is because of the number of players involved. Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo!, MySpace, FOX, NBC, and News Corp. were all involved somehow as partners of the company in some shape or form. But the reason why I am calling Google hypocritical is that they seem to be pulling the same trick: partnering with a large number of companies to try and one-up a company that they cannot stand to see score a good deal for themselves. Microsoft’s investment in Facebook is what I’m referring to specifically.

I am making a bold statement by calling Google execs a hypocrite, but I have to admit that I was partially influenced by the article title on today’s New York Times: Google and Friends to Gang Up on Facebook. And when hearing Google and Friends Ganging Up on Facebook, I think of a $220 billion search monopoly picking on a 23 year old with a good idea. Shame on you: Schmidt, Brin, and Page. You guys should just take some money out of the bank and take a bath in it or buy more Boeings.

Who is Google allying with? Other social networks of course. These social networks include:
1.) LinkedIn
2.) hi5
3.) Friendster
4.) Plaxo
5.) Ning

Other companies involved in Google OpenSocial include Oracle and Salesforce.com. Just for the record, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch also mentioned that the only image associated with OpenSocial is a horny Elmer’s glue thing. As funny as that comment was, I agree that there is something highly wrong with this image.

All opinions aside, do I expect OpenSocial to really take off? I think developers will explore the prospects of OpenSocial, but won’t be as receptive to developing applications for Google’s partners. This is because Facebook’s core users are college students and young, urban professionals that are still receptive to adding applications that make networking more “fun.” And the social networks that Google has partnered with are losing their edge. As a recently graduated college student myself, I have personally left Friendster years ago and never looked back.

I think Google is an amazing service and will not sway from using their search engine unless something amazing comes along, but I think OpenSocial seems too much like a product created out of a grudge. And that doesn’t go along with their “Don’t be Evil” philosophy. When Facebook Applications were released, they were promoted as a way for developers to explore the creative senses while leveraging Facebook’s user base.