Tech Town, NC

I finally got around to trying out my beta Hulu account and, I have to say, it’s pretty damn good. The initial reaction to the venture was, of course, skeptical, but now people seem to be coming around. It’s even been nominated for best video site by the Crunchies.

The key for me is this – It’s simple. It’s clean and clutter free, which makes it dead easy to find the show you want. There’s none of the user generated crap to clutter it up, just a simple table with the 20 or so shows they make available. Perhaps more importantly, the content is pretty good. I’m not a fan of most user generated stuff so, outside of the rare Miss South Carolina type of gaffe, I usually only have patience for clips that are well written and produced. Hulu has a surprising amount of this with The Office, Arrested Development, 30 Rock , and SNL.

Now, technically the site is run by “The Man” so maybe I should be less enthusiastic. At the same time, though, the fact that the content is actually making money for the creators of it is a good thing. The ads themselves are pretty minimal, with a short pre-roll, a small banner ad, and one or two short commercials. I’m all in favor of NBC (and Steve Carell) making money from The Office, and have always felt a little uncomfortable using sites like Veoh to watch content from other sources. Apparently, NBC-Universal would like Veoh to be uncomfortable with it too. In the past one rationalization for pirating content has been that the major media companies have dragged their feet in making content available, so consumers are justified in using the services that ARE available. With Hulu, NBC has taken a giant leap toward making content available and may be saving their business in the process.