Online TV service Hulu.com, the company that is owned by ABC, NBC, and Fox is intensifying their competition against Nextflix and they are planning to raise money to expand into more original programming. Hulu is releasing their first scripted show “Battleground” on February 14th and is weighing an option to raise cash this year according to chief content officer Andy Forssell.

Hulu.com, the joint venture video streaming company of NBCUniversal, Fox Entertainment Group, and Disney, has reported their 2011 numbers and they are BIG! Hulu has grown 60% from 2010 to $420 million in revenues despite the slow economy, which directly affects the advertising market. Hulu’s ad business grew aggressively and Hulu Plus helped their revenues shoot up from between $200-$300 million in 2010.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) CEO Bob Iger has bought around $1 million worth of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares earlier this week. This is a symbolic gesture in Iger’s confidence about Apple’s prospects. Iger joined Apple’s board on November 15th. He bought 2,670 Apple shares on the open market on Tuesday at an average price of $375 each. Iger’s wife owns 75 Apple shares. [Reuters]

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) subsidiary YouTube.com has announced that Disney movies are now available for rent on the video streaming website. These Disney movies are spread across The Walt Disney Studios, Disney Pixar, and DreamWorks Studios.

 
[Left: Art Levinson, Right: Bob Iger]
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced today that they have named Art Levinson as the non-executive chairman of the board. He succeeds Steve Jobs, who had passed away last month after battling cancer for several years. Art joined the Apple board in 2000 and has been the longest serving co-lead director. Apple also added Disney CEO Bob Iger to the board of directors at the company. Iger is best known for overseeing the merger of Pixar and Disney.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) subsidiary YouTube and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is spending $10-$15 million to create an original video series according to The New York Times. The video shorts will be produced by Disney and it will be distributed on a co-branded channel on Disney.com and YouTube. Disney will benefit from getting web traffic from YouTube. The original video content will benefit YouTube because they are competing against websites that specialize in premium video content. YouTube depends heavily on user-generated content for its popularity.

Although Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Chairman Steve Jobs recently stepped down from the CEO position, he will remain on the board of directors at The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS). According to a source with Bloomberg, Jobs’ position at Disney would be unaffected by changes at Apple.

Hulu is still looking for a buyer, and the potential buyers are still looking for some promises of future content access before they make any moves. Hulu has stepped forward with a promise of 5 years of content, two years of which will be exclusive, from Disney, News Corp. and NBC. [Bloomberg]