YouTube's Sad Studio Deal Just Highlights Hulu's Superiority
In the war between video sites, Hulu might have the Daily Show, 30 Rock and 24, but YouTube just signed big studio deals to bring you... Harper's Island and The Addams Family. Oh, Google.
The search giant is doing its best to stanch large bandwidth losses at its video site ($470 million says Credit Suisse, though Google disputes that). It is thinking about charging for some videos, CEO Eric Schmidt told the New York Times, while the Wall Street Journal reports the company is exploring a deal to offer some videos exclusively to Time Warner cable subscribers.
The two networks are fighting over who gets a deal for ABC shows. The Journal reports Hulu, which now carries NBC and Fox, is the likely winner.
In the meantime, YouTube is offering TV shows like Married with Children and movies like Carrie here, thanks to new deals with studios like Lions Gate, MGM and Sony.
Also in the meantime, pretty much everyone will continue watching Hulu, with its clean interface, crisp-looking video and viewer-friendly commercial options. And the News Corp.-NBC Universal joint venture will continue to have the best shot at turning a profit where the supposed Web geniuses at Google have failed.