YouTube takes on Hulu

Will the new TV and movie channel on Google’s YouTube pose a threat to other online video sites?

Google’s YouTube is expanding “beyond amateur and pirated content,” said Anthony Ha in Venture Beat, with a new section of its site featuring TV shows and movies from Sony, CBS, Lionsgate, and other studios. In other words, YouTube is “starting to sound a lot more like Hulu,” the popular online video venture between NBC and Fox. YouTube gets a lot more “eyeballs” than Hulu, so maybe this “baby step” will lead somewhere.

Don't bet on it, said Mark Hachman in PC Magazine. With a lineup of shows “only a sick old retiree could love,” YouTube’s new offering is “a little embarrassing.” YouTube will need more than “dollar VHS bin” movies and Alf reruns if it wants to give Hulu any competition at all, or get people to sit through the TV ads it’s splicing in.

YouTube, which reportedly loses $470 million a year, has to make money somehow, said Douglas MacMillan in BusinessWeek, and advertisers have been “squeamish” about hawking their products next to “unsavory, user-generated videos.” Hulu, with its roster of new shows, has been an advertising success—and that’s why studios are being "stingier” with YouTube.