Disney announced today that it’s buying a 30% stake in the Fox and NBC online-video venture Hulu, and, more important to you, that means that shows from Disney-owned ABC (Lost, Ugly Betty, et al.) will be available on Hulu. Which leaves CBS as the big-network outsider, putting its own content out on the relatively underwhelming TV.com site.
As much as it may pain one to admit that a TV broadcast network has done anything right, much less on the Web, Hulu appears to be living up to its hype as an attractive destination for online TV—both in terms of the user experience and, from the content-providers’ standpoint, its audience reach. Whether that means it will ultimately be a good business deal, I don’t know; but TechCrunch argues that this latest move should make YouTube nervous.
I’d post a Hulu video in celebration, but—cough, cough—certain magazine blogs are still unable to embed Hulu video. Maybe this will peer-pressure us to change!
