Hulu hosts more than 1,000 shows, from "Family Guy" to "Saturday Night Live." There are more than 130 content providers, not only NBC and Fox, but Sony Pictures Television, MGM Studios, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures and PBS. The site's database of full-length films also has grown.
ComScore pegged its unique monthly visitors for October at 24 million. On average, a visitor watches 10 videos on Hulu in a month, which is good enough to chart Hulu sixth in videos viewed online.
That only garners Hulu about 2 percent of the online video market, far below the leading Google sites — of which Google's YouTube is the big draw. But many believe Hulu is more appealing to advertisers than YouTube, and that Hulu's ad revenues could equal YouTube's by the end of 2009. (Hulu declines to share revenue figures, but says they finished above internal estimates for the year.)
Previously Internet-shy content providers — notably the TV networks — seem to have embraced the Hulu model. The Viacom-owned CBS.com recently relaunched in a design very similar to Hulu's clean, white interface and user-friendly functionality.
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