Hulu: Real TV programming on the Web

Service: Hulu

What it does: Displays popular TV shows and a small number of movies in a Web browser -- for free.

Why it will succeed: Content, content, content! While YouTube and other video services wrestle with the big cigars of the entertainment world over copyrights, Hulu is the offspring of NBC Universal and News Corp. This powerful duo will provide their own content, plus that of MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros and others. The business model is based on serving ads to viewers. Hulu has a small yet interesting collection of videos to choose from: Complete episodes of more than 250 TV series, clips from 150 more and about 100 movies. The site sports a slick, easy-to-use interface, and videos can be watched in a browser, without downloading a separate client. Programs are interrupted -- but only briefly -- by the ads. Content is streamed and can be displayed in a full screen.

Why it hasn't succeeded yet: It just came out of beta. Also, the library of back catalog and fringe programming needs to grow a lot before it can start capitalizing on Long Tail momentum.

Net views:

Mooneythinks: "The interface is Apple-inspired -- simple, clean, easy to use. It's immersive in a big way. Made me want to stay for hours -- which is exactly the point!"

Management: CEO Jason Kilar, former senior vice president of Amazon.

Related prediction:

• Prediction: Hulu will announce 200 full-length feature movies by May 15, 2008

Other related content:

• Slideshow home: Opinion: 10 'Net services that will succeed (and 10 that will probably fail)
• Joost: Lots of buzz, but lacks a Web interface
• Overlay.TV: Video finally gets hyperlinks

Note: Anonymous comments on The Industry Standard are disabled. To leave a comment and participate in the Standard's prediction market, please register first.