It took five months, which is nothing in Hollywood-time, really, but the online video joint venture between NBC-U and News Corp., heretofore known as Newco, finally has a name: Hulu. Hulu is Hawaiin for “feather/plumage” and “choice and precious” but it really doesn’t matter.
Hulu falls right in line with all the Web 2.0ish names out there including Joost, Skype and even Google. Now that step number one is over, the real question is when the j.v., an alliance between the two studios to syndicate video content on the web while simultaneously sticking it to YouTube, will actually get something off the ground.
The companies plan to start a beta by October, a month behind schedule, and are inviting folks to sign up as testers at the Hulu site. At this rate, hulu should be ready to do its stuff by mid-2008, assuming that it ever achieves reality. As I’ve said before, Hollywood studios don’t work well together.
Update: Everybody’s making fun of Hulu’s name. Mike Arrington has this particularly on-target piece that razzes the studios for naming their venture something that in Swahili means “cease and desist” and in Indonesian means “butt.” Meanwhile, this prescient LA Times article talks about all the goofy, vowell-laden corporate names flowing from Silicon Valley these days, including Abazab, Eefoof, Wakoopa, Frengo, Ooma, Lala, BooRah, Tagtooga, Tendango, ItzBig, Picaboo and many others. Hulu, in comparison, sounds shart and smart.
Cynthia Brumfield at 1:28 PM|Comments(0)
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