Hulu Launches

Hulu - the crazy-named NBC and Fox sponsored $100M-backed YouTube killer website which has been in Beta for almost 5 months, will finally open up its doors today as an "official launch".

The site focuses on "professional content" with shows like the Simpsons, Saturday Night Live clips and the Office. That contrasts to YouTube's amateur-tastic videos with content like those two guys who run around with songs, that other guy who likes Britney Spears and a number of handi-cam quasi-pirated videos.

Oh and the best thing? Hulu will allow you to watch reruns of your favourite shows for free!

Just one problem...

IT ONLY WORKS IF YOU'RE IN THE US

Go head - try it. I signed up with my typical fake-US account info (you know address - 1600 Pennsylvania Blvd, Zip Code 90210) and it accepts the application alright. But when I try to check out that sweet sweet Lazy Sunday clip, I get a black screen and "Unfortunately this video is not currently available in your country or region. We apologize for the inconvenience."

No they don't - they don't apologize at all. It was always planned on keeping the distribution for only US users. So that SNL meme which was one of the founding concepts of Hulu (Lazy Sunday lights up YouTube and other sites, NBC signs distribution agreement to show it there, then pulls it and puts it on its NBC.com website for the world to view, then pulls it an puts it on Hulu.com for only the US to view) would never happen now that Hulu exists.

I hope it fails (and/or adds international viewers which I doubt will happen, so fail it is)