Thursday, April 30, 2009

When viral videos attack

Two bits of news from the world of streaming video:

• There was no "Better Off Ted" last night because of President Obama's press conference, and Veridian Dynamics wasn't happy about that.

• Disney is becoming an equity partner in Hulu, which means that once the deal closes, Hulu will be able to stream episodes of most ABC series, plus some ABC Family and Disney Channel shows, plus certain movies and shows from the Disney libraries. This pleases me, since other than image quality, Hulu's interface is much, much better than the one on ABC.com.

22 comments:

Jefferson Burns said...

I'm doing a little happy dance now. Good for Hulu. Hope they get to air all of the ABC series, because the ABC video irritates me a lot!

Jordan said...

My love for Better Off Ted knows no bounds. That was awesome, plus another shot at NBC.

Anonymous said...

I love me some Hulu. My job blocks the abc.com show viewer from working, but hulu still works thankfully.

Anonymous said...

Not sure where this should go, but love for Chuck and Alan on CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/30/save.chuck.show/index.html

Jenn said...

That didn't work...
Cnn.com

fgmerchant said...

Great news about ABC and hulu! I refuse to install extra plugins to watch shows on ABC or CW or TBS so having things available on Hulu is a godsend!

amitytv said...

Veridian Dynamics is awesome! Thanks for the link, Alan!

Christy said...

I'd rather have CBS sign a deal. CW has a better streaming setup than CBS. Although having all that Hannah Montana available will be nice too. :-P

Lasse said...

Is it kinda weird that I would actually like working for that Company?

Better of Ted is clearly the best new comedy of the season.

Anonymous said...

The Veridian video is brilliant! Better Off Ted just cemented itself as one of the smartest shows on TV.

Jackie said...

Any chance this means Hulu will be coming to Canada sometime soon?

Anonymous said...

As the most viable candidate to launch a retaliation, I think 30 Rock has to take a few pot shots at Walt Disney Corp. The other NBC sitcoms can't get away with as much.

The allegedly racist material, plagiarism, the marketing of sex to preteens. Nothing South Park hasn't done.

Like the bean ball contests in basball, it's on the pitcher to retaliate and face the obligatory charging of the mound and being tossed.

It's on you, Tracy Jordan.

Anonymous said...

Great Veridian video. We did get Ted out on the West Coast. They showed the one where the building sensors couldn't see black people. Love the show.

Zac F. said...

Alan,

Any idea what time the NBC upfronts are on Monday?

I'm glad that ABC shows will be on Hulu. Now if CBS would put up full episodes of The Big Bang Theory.....

Anonymous said...

Better Off Ted Better be renewed or ABC will be Bettr Off Dead, (except for Lost).

Puff

ghoti said...

This is great! I can stream Hulu and CBS through my PS3, so now I have all four networks if I need them.

And Greek, too! Nice.

Chaddogg said...

Out of curiosity, Alan, when WILL we know if, uh, I mean THAT Chuck has been renewed by NBC? I know the upfront is next week -- shouldn't the news be coming out today so they get some good press in advance?

Or are they going to drag it out until the day of upfronts to make the upfronts a bigger promotional tool?

Come to think of it, I'd ABSOLUTELY wait until the day of upfronts -- make the whole thing a "will they or won't they" on Chuck's renewal, get millions of blog/internet Chuck fans eyeballs glued to coverage of NBC's upfronts, introduce them to all the new shows to build publicity, then WOW them with the news that Chuck is renewed.

Of course, that's what a first-place network would do. So NBC will probably announce it Saturday night, so they get no press coverage at all of the decision.

Anonymous said...

Thank God. Move Media Player is horrible.

KoryL said...

Can I also give a rousing shout-out to that VD link? Pure. Comic. Gold.

Steve Ely said...

Alan, that second bullet point may be the best news I've heard all day. And your final sentence of that paragraph puts it very well. Hulu's interface is indeed much, much better than the one on ABC.com, and the prospect of watching LOST online without all the annoying crap it presently entails pleases me tremendously.

Anonymous said...

Alan, also check out this ad, and be sure to go to the company web site.

P@ said...

Hulu really is on a quest to destroy the world! Go, Hulu!!

(I'm quite happy about the Hulu/Disney meshup. I really hope this means that (old) episodes of Lost will be viewable on Hulu, because the ABC viewer is an abomination unto man.)