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story category AT&T Officially Launches Hulu Clone
Though it appears to be little more than a place marker...
11:03AM Friday Sep 11 2009 by Karl Bode
tags: Video · business · telco · content · AT&T U-Verse
After quietly soft launching their new video portal earlier this month, AT&T has now officially announced their new "AT&T Entertainment" video portal. According to the AT&T press release, the portal offers free TV shows and movie clips "via an agreement with Hulu," which is apparently why it looks very similar to Hulu itself. As it stands, the offering is little more than a placeholder for AT&T's future Internet TV ambitions, be they online content that's integrated with their U-Verse service, or part of an authentication "TV Everywhere" system. So why not just go to Hulu? Good question, and one that AT&T's going to have to answer in short order.

Related:
  1. U-Verse Hits 100,000 Users
  2. U-Verse Arrives In Columbus
  3. AT&T Developing New Web Browser
  4. All Markets Will See U-Verse Dual HD Streams By Q3
  5. User Impressions Of AT&T's New 18Mbps U-Verse Tier
  6. AT&T Completes Whole Home DVR Upgrade
  7. AT&T Brings Pop Up Ads To U-Verse TV
  8. What Network Neutrality Is REALLY About
Forums » AT&T Officially Launches Hulu Clone
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Chaldo

join:2008-03-18
West Bloomfield, MI

Comcast also has something coming up

This is nice and all, but I think Comcast On demand online is going to be better, we will see.

Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC

Why not just to go Hulu?

Why not just go to Hulu? Because AT&T is obsessed (rightly or wrongly) with branding everything AT&T. Most of the large communications companies, Verizon, Time Warner, Comcast, all do the same thing.
ISurfTooMuch

join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

Who wants clips?

Over and over, I see services offering movie clips or clips of TV shows? Why on earth would I want to watch a movie clip or a clip from a TV show? You get no plot or context whatsoever. It'd be like watching a TV where someone else is randomly flipping the channel every few minutes.

IMHO, this is the man reason these video services on the Web and cell phones fail: lousy content. Selling such a service is hard enough, given the ubiquity of TVs in public places and the other demands on our time, but when you also throw in crappy content, it's no wonder no one wants them. Hulu, YouTube, and Netflix are about the only one that's gotten it right, and that's because they offer things people want to see.

odment
Alrighty Then
Premium
join:2002-11-30
Warren, MI

Re: Who wants clips?

Just went to the site and looked. I like dragnet I watched it on hulu. So i just tried it on the att site. And it playes the movie from the Hulu site its even got the hulu markings on it.

Eat Me

join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ

Re: Who wants clips?

It is just hulu with an ATT skin.

TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast

said by odment See Profile :

Just went to the site and looked. I like dragnet I watched it on hulu. So i just tried it on the att site. And it playes the movie from the Hulu site its even got the hulu markings on it.
I use Hulu to watch old WKRP in Cincinnati shows. If you like some old comedy series that they don't show on TV anymore, this is the place to go.

cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

said by ISurfTooMuch See Profile :

Over and over, I see services offering movie clips or clips of TV shows? Why on earth would I want to watch a movie clip or a clip from a TV show? You get no plot or context whatsoever. It'd be like watching a TV where someone else is randomly flipping the channel every few minutes.
I've only watched hulu a few times (Netflix I found is better for my needs), but all those times the episodes were the full episodes. They may not have the entire series so ongoing story lines may be harder to follow but it wasn't just a several minute clip of a movie or show.
ISurfTooMuch

join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

Re: Who wants clips?

Correct. As I said at the end of my post, Hulu is one of the few video sites that have gotten it right.

On the flipside, I once tried VCAST. I dropped it before the end of my free month. Other than a few news updates, I couldn't find much that interested me. Granted, that was several years ago, so things may have changed, but it didn't seem worth my time then.
paul7986

join:2009-09-09
Nottingham, MD

This AT&T site reminds me more of Fancast.com (Comcast Online TV portal) then Hulu. At least on either Fancast or this AT&T TV site - CBS shows are included.

For me I watch online TV(mac mini connected to LCD TV) on Hulu, CBSnews.com/video, theWB , wbkids.com and sometimes ABC.com as not all ABC shows are up on Hulu yet. When I can't find anything on the mentioned I'll search YouTube for sitcoms, as many are on there, but broken into 3 parts. I use to use Joost and TV.com, but blah nothing on there interests me lately.

Frank
is chilling
Premium
join:2000-11-03
somewhere
I agree with you, I hate clips.

TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast

Plenty of FULL length episodes:
»www.hulu.com/browse/alphabetical/episodes

And fulll length movies:
»www.hulu.com/browse/alphabetical···re_films
greendesert

join:2009-02-19
West Mifflin, PA

dont forget the bandwidth cap

How much could one watch with bandwidth caps being thrown by all the ISPs

Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..

Re: dont forget the bandwidth cap

said by greendesert See Profile :

How much could one watch with bandwidth caps being thrown by all the ISPs
A ton, Hulu streams HD at 1Mbps. Most HD shows are 500MB or so.

bender
Bite my shiny metal ass
Premium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL
clubs:
the HD that Hulu uses is 480p. so i'm guessing that it uses a little more than half of what 720p would use. I can't wait until they get the nerve to actually have shows in 720p that'd be awesome!

Telco_Tech

join:2009-05-18
Toledo, OH

Re: dont forget the bandwidth cap

said by bender See Profile :

the HD that Hulu uses is 480p. so i'm guessing that it uses a little more than half of what 720p would use. I can't wait until they get the nerve to actually have shows in 720p that'd be awesome!
Not entirely true. They do support 720p already, there's just not much to pick from yet. Here's an example:

»www.hulu.com/hd/29272

"2.5 Mbps or higher" connection required...

- Tate

--
It's time to let go of TDM people. If it's not IP-based, it's crap!
PittsPgh

join:2003-08-21
Pittsburgh, PA

Compared AT&T v Hulu

I just checked out both sites.
HULU Wins hands down!
The AT&T just plain sucked
Watched the same episode of Warehouse 13 on both.

AT&T = Lower quality, out of sync, jerky play. Unbearable to watch.

Hulu = Better quality, Better speed, insync, even turned on the closed captions no effect. Looked good even on the 40" flat screen TV.

Paul

TCub
Premium
join:2008-09-03
Olmsted Falls, OH
clubs:

AT&T Blucks.

I'm not happy with anything AT&T does... I'll just stick to Hulu Desktop on my iMac and M17 notebook.
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Forums » AT&T Officially Launches Hulu Clone


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