NBC, News Corp. name new video site Hulu
General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal Inc. and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. on Wednesday announced the name of their new Web-based network of films and television shows: Hulu.
The site will start in a private testing format in October and be open to a limited number of users, the companies said in an e-mailed statement.
The name was chosen because it is short, easy to spell and rhymes with itself, project chief Jason Kilar said on the Hulu website.
The NBC Universal-News Corp. project, first announced in March, is designed to compete with Web-based video sites such as Google Inc.’s YouTube.
The site will include films and TV shows produced by the NBC and Fox TV networks and the Universal and 20th Century Fox film studios. Revenue will come from advertising and the sale of program downloads.
Hulu plans to offer programming through the Internet sites of its distribution partners -- Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, Comcast Corp., Microsoft Corp.’s MSN, News Corp.’s MySpace and Yahoo Inc., said Kilar, who became chief executive in June.
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