Just a day after video-sharing site Veoh added a TV tab with shows from Hulu and CBS, Microsoft did the same thing with the launch of a new MSN Video Guide. (This is really just a new user interface to showcase this content). It too has a TV tab with full-length episodes from Hulu (Fox and NBC Universal shows), as well as CBS. Similar to Veoh, the shows range from Battlestar Galactica, CSI, 24, The Office, and The Simpsons to classics like the A-Team and Miami Vice. All the shows can be watched in an embeddable player on MSN Video.
It looks like becoming a hyper-aggregator of video is becoming hyper-popular, and won’t necessarily be a point of differentiation. Meanwhile, Hulu’s focus on getting hyper-distribution of its videos on other Websites first, and launching its own public Website second looks to be paying off already. Everyone wants to distribute those NBC and Fox videos.
Woohoo, I get the first comment
I think that Microsoft is brilliant for following our lead.
What a way to start off the new year!
Eh; I stillt think http://www.cavenger.comis the best tv show aggregator
oops, that’s http://www.cavenger.com
Will have to catch up on the office. And of course check out some old A-Team stuff.
Nice to see startups like Veoh lighting a fire under the big guys.
This is great, it opens doors for a lot of smaller video aggregators.
Content is and will always be king. Hulu gets to control the players that get embedded, ads and all. Huge win for them.
I’m sorry but humbug to these other video sites. Everything about Hulu is much better than these two services. Hulu has an awesome design, great controls, decent quality video, and a wide selection. Hopefully they’ll be out of beta soon so that the general public can experience the wonderful experience that is Hulu.
There’s just one small missing feature: be watchable on most of the world.
This only works on USA, why is that never mentioned?
Cool stuff …. im sure other content providers are too follow!
Hope soon ….cause you can stream whatever you want at chinese YouTube – Tuduo.com. I’d prefer to watch through a legit channel, but alas the others are being foolish for being slow!
Cable TV glad i got rid of you – $86 a mo. saved!
@9 – I agree. I’m an Aussie and I find it a constant source of frustration that sites like Veoh don’t cater to non-US users. I understand it has to do with international licensing etc but it’s still frustrating. Thank God for Bittorrent!
This is a shout to Michael Volpi, CEO of Joost:
Maybe Joost should tag along the trend of embedding Hulu videos.
It’s technically feasable since they basically use XULRunner (the core of Firefox), they could easily start embedding Hulu videos.
The setback of course, is that they’d have the Hulu ads being shown, but hey, they could at least make some money with their layover ads.
It seems to me Joost should use the embedding aspect of Hulu to not loose its user base over content. No matter what Joost does, Hulu wins in content, people like a lot of the shows available in Hulu and Joost will never get its hands on that content, so why not just embed it and work around it.
You better start moving Volpi.
MSN doesn’t have a full-screen option. So much for right back at cha.
Hulu is a slut.
“Hulu’s focus on getting hyper-distribution of its videos on other Websites first, and launching its own public Website second looks to be paying off already.”
Perhaps hyper-distribution would include more than the US? It’s time for these companies to stop listening to their lawyers; or otherwise stop complaining about the pirate bay. Ahoy!
MSN is a Hulu distribution partner are they not? So this is really no news…