Hulu Gets Ready for Its Close-Up

The News Corp. and NBC Universal joint venture for branded video programming, Hulu.com, launches formally on Wed. The ad-supported video site claims partnerships with 50 media companies, 200 premium titles in the library and distribution across MSN, AOL, MySpace and Yahoo. The company has not landed deals with two of the major TV networks, CBS and ABC, both of whom are pursuing their own online TV distribution strategies. While the Hulu.com viewer is very polished and responsive, we are still waiting to see how effective the distribution strategy proves to be. How much will Hulu.com really demand that people return to the Hulu site to watch video, and how eager will these many partners be to promote Hulu.com content over other video alternatives at their own site?