KEY POINTS:
It's still in limited invite mode so I haven't been able to gain access to it yet, but the Hulu.com website, a joint venture of Fox and NBC that puts the networks' major TV shows online in their entirely and free to view, is winning rave reviews in the US press.
Salon writes: "With Hulu, finally, a great many TV shows - from several networks, and from several TV epochs, the distant past (the 1980s) to the present - are available on a single site, viewable in a hassle-free browser-based player, with great video quality and very minimal commercial interruptions."
CNet: "Fans of The Simpsons, Bionic Woman, or My Name is Earl can go to the site, click on a couple of links, and watch the TV shows in their entirety. The images are clear, free of any of the aggravations that sometimes plague streaming video, such as stalled pictures or pixelated images."
But Wired wasn't so impressed: "Although Hulu's parent companies have done a lot of things right with the service, the scheduling leaves something to be desired.
"For the time being, the site will only feature five weeks worth of content for any given show. From there, it's assumed that older content will get the boot in favour of newer episodes and movies. This isn't necessarily a deal breaker for us, but for a lot of viewers this will prevent the service from becoming with online video Shangri-La they'd imagined."
The online TV scene is really opening up. YouTube has most of the internet viewing audience attracted by an eclectic mix of user-generated content but is also doing deals with the big networks to show "premium" advertising-supported content.
Joost, the peer-to-peer advertising supported website has been running for months now and while I haven't been too impressed with the format or content, I think it has great potential for development. So can the big network players do it by themselves? Maybe, but I'm in favour of more independent aggregators of content. I'd rather be going to Joost where the offerings of all the major networks are available rather than visiting numerous websites, navigating numerous different content and viewing systems.
Anyway, all of this may be irrelevant to us if Hulu limits usage to the US market as Apple has done for many of the shows on its iTunes website. I've registered for Hulu but whether I'll be able to use it on an ongoing basis is another thing.
