Yep. I got a laugh at the commercial for HULU. On FiOS. Dennis Leary is an alien... HULU...let me see...I give it...2 years...tops...till someone buys it. Oh wait, what a great idea! Let's figure out how to get rights to stuff, then repackage the stuff and then sell the stuff!
You know Hulu was started by NBC and Fox right? So they already have the rights.
HULU allows the Networks to stream their shows and not need to do it from their own Site's Servers (although some shows do come from Network Site's Servers. Also, the viewer numbers that can be collected via HULU and the Sites are more accurate than those that Nielsen provides since there is a larger sample and a more targeted one. In a recent article on Show Renewals I saw a comment that some shows with so-so Nielsen ratings were renewed due to strong streaming numbers. There is also the fact that the Steaming Numbers are more accurate since they represent actual viewing (since they are in essence VoD numbers) while the Nielsen numbers are inaccurate due to shows airing opposite each other or at inconvenient times (or not being aired at the scheduled time due to a prior show "running over" its allocated slot).
