Hulu
Hulu is an ad-supported online video service that offers on-demand streaming content including popular TV shows, movies, and other clips from many networks including FOX, ABC, and NBC. The company's ownership is shared by The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, News Corporation, Providence Equity Partners, and the Hulu team. It started its subscription-based service in 2007 Hulu also provides a premium service for customers called Hulu Plus, which provides more content on additional devices for $7.99 a month. As of 2011, Hulu Plus has 1.5 million subscribers, making it the fastest video subscription service to reach that number in U.S. history. Hulu's headquarters are located in Los Angeles, California.
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History
Hulu, literally meaning to "gourd" and "interactive recording," was founded in March of 2007 in partnership with AOL, Comcast, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo. It started with an invitation-based beta testing only available in the U.S. Jason Hilar was appointed CEO in 2007. In 2007, Hulu won "Best Video Startup" at the 2007 Crunchies, an event sponsored by TechCrunch, GigaOm, and VentureBeat. On March 12th of 2008, Hulu opened its services to the U.S. public, starting with full-length episodes of shows such as The Simpsons, The Office, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In late 2008, Hulu added a "Discussions" tab underneath the video player that allows users to discuss videos.
In 2008, The Walt Disney Company became an equity owner of Hulu, adding many of Disney's most popular content including shows like Lost, Grey's Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives. In 2011, the Hulu Plus app was created for Androids, namely at first for the Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X, and the Motorola Atrix. By the end of the year, Hulu was available on multiple platforms including Xbox Live, many smart phones, and tablets such as the NOOK and the Kindle Fire. Hulu launched in Japan in late 2011, giving users access to shows on four devices for one monthly price.
