News Corps long awaited Hulu has finally launched in its exclusive beta stages.

Hulu acts as a content agent, bringing television shows and movie clips to online viewers. Hulu also allows users to share video content and or embed the videos on their own site, incorporating that online social end_user-to-end_user distribution concept. Of the television shows listed for Hulu viewers are The Office, Prison Break, House and much more. News Corp has also collaborated outside their television network to not limit the content their members will be exposed to - All this to increase the value of the site and the value of the time a viewer spends on Hulu.

In a smart effort to extend the Hulu brand, the site will also distribute its own content to a list of online partners (AOL, MySpace, Yahoo, MSN and Comcast), to grab even those audiences in areas other than theirs.

What makes this story so interesting is not their use of video and video sharing however. The interesting points come from News Corps take on “if you cant beat em’ join em’”. Many of you may already know that News Corp themselves are a huge media and entertainment publisher, with their primary television station being FOX, but the media giant also owns a series of newspapers with the most notable being the New York Post. And as with many traditional publishers of media, they have felt the impact of online users taking the content, served in the traditional way, and publishing it online in forums easily recognizable and accessible to their friends and other laymen public surfing the Web. So, News Corps decision to give the people the information and entertainment in the fashion their actions have been telling us they would like it in, is extremely brave and smart.

By taking the actions above, News Corp is ensuring an extension of their brands in a relevant format that is highly accepted and feeds how consumers look for entertainment today. Let’s not forget that keeping relevant in the publics eye is also a great to stay relevant to paying advertisers.

written by Beverly Crandon \\ tags: Hulu, News Corp