Hulu update: Days of Summer, adding more viewers, Stewart and Colbert

hulu days of summerThere is a reason they call it the dog days of summer. It’s hot. TV is all repeats. Except for blockbuster weekends like Memorial Day and July 4, summer movie releases can be pretty bad. The kids, off school, even get bored watching YouTube.

Hulu, the increasingly popular online video venture brought to you by NBC and Fox, is fighting the dog days of summer with Hulu Days of Summer, introduced this week. From now until mid-August, Hulu will release a “premiere” program each weekday, hoping to entice viewers to drop by to see what’s new.

The first week of content isn’t bad — the movie “Lost in Translation”, “The Three Stoogest Collection 1934-1936” (perfect summer fare), the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Nova,” and “Bring it On.” Upcoming days on the calendar are represented by a simple question mark.

A nice touch: Hulu is providing an RSS feed. Subscribe and every weekday a new movie or TV program is delivered to your reader. Interested in watching? Click on the link and go directly to the movie’s or program’s Hulu page.

Also subscribe to Hulu’s blog if you want to see why a particular movie or program was chosen.

Hulu continues its climb

The Nielsen Video Census, released today for May online video viewing, notes that Hulu continues to improve its numbers, while other online sites remain stagnant.

Nielsen said that overall online viewing fell about two percent from April to May. YouTube dipped ever so slightly from four billion total number of streams to 3.8 billion. No need to worry, though: YouTube still accounts for more than half of the online videos watched by Americans.

At the same time, Hulu saw its usage grow from 63 million video streams in April to 80 million in May, a 27 percent increase. With unique users up 13 percent, it looks as though more people are watching Hulu.

hulu colbertHulu became the ninth most watched online video site in mid-March, although it remains light years behind world leader YouTube.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

“The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” on Hulu

In another move to generate more viewers, Hulu added the supremely popular “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” last week, giving each program wider distribution. Unlike elsewhere, viewerscan pick out their favorite segments from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and email to friends.

Unfortunately, all of Hulu remains landlocked in the U.S. and not available overseas, which is just plain stupid, wrong, short-sighted. (See The Inquisitr post.) But then again, us yanks don’t have access to BBC video programs, unless we buy them on DVD or, if offered, from iTunes.

Let’s make a trade: Hulu for BBC content.

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

One Response to “Hulu update: Days of Summer, adding more viewers, Stewart and Colbert”

  1. Dave Zatz says:

    It’s not *all* repeats… One of my new, favorite shows Burn Notice returns 7/10 (USA) and Penn & Teller Bullsh*t is back on Showtime. I’m kinda down on Hulu these days… it’s not working for the way I want to use it.

Leave a Reply to Dave Zatz