The site, Hulu.com, has officially opened to all visitors. They no longer even require registration to watch their content. The question is, how IS that content?

Still a combination of Fox and NBC shows, they offer a wide range of options. They've recently added little icons by each show to denote where "full episodes" are available. The alternative, such as in the case of Futurama right now, are just 1 or 2 minute clips. Although they offer over 60 of these, that hardly warrants much effort to watch. Probably one of the objectives of the site is to have recently aired TV shows up on the site. This is a good way to avoid piracy, and to bring in more viewers on next week's show. They've done this pretty well, as I can see New Amsterdam's most recent episode up there.

The greatest improvement of the site is the added selection of full length films. This is something the internet has been moving towards: ad supported movies. Right now there is a really great selection of somewhat dated films and newer releases. Its great to see The Big Lebowski free for the watching.

Site:hulu / More Info

According to the LA Times many of the WGA writers who are on strike are in talks with venture capitalists about web entertainment ideas. Appropriately, if they can't get income from their own content which the networks are putting online, they are jumping to put their own scripted stuff online. This will be a direct revenue source for them, and they'll have far greater creative control.

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...that will be the case before long. Viacom has apparently signed a deal to put all the back episodes, and future episodes as they're released, on the South Park website according to CNET news. These episodes will probably feature some sort of ads, but their instant access will be a major improvement over watching reruns on TV.

Right now the site only contains a couple of clips and some other non-video features. Hopefully all the content will be up some time in early 2008. Reportedly, Matt Stone and Trey Parker will be getting a full 50% of income from the site.

Site:South Park Studios / More Info