Hulu.com - Wow, I like it!

What is Hulu?  Here's what Hulu has to say about themselves.

Hulu offers current primetime shows like The Office, Prison Break, Bionic Woman, House and Bones, and episodes from TV classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Miami Vice, Arrested Development and more. We've also partnered with premier content owners like E! Entertainment, FUEL TV and SciFi Network and USA Networks to add to our growing collection of premium programming.

I finally received my beta invite and was expecting to have some dislike for a major network backed content provider.  I knew they were locking it down and also were not allowing the ability to skip commercials.  After previewing a small selection of their content I decided I would start off with an episode of The Simpsons.  The initial commercial is only about 6 second.  Very bearable.  There were two more commercials during  playback and the progress bar indicates where they are.  Those also were very short.  The playback was smooth and had the option of opening in a smaller pop-up window, which I enjoyed.  Some of the other options available were; full screen viewing, mail to a friend, vote and embed tags for your site (which I will try below).  You also have the ability to clip the video and mail or embed only the clipped version.

The content list is impressive for something still in beta.  This is a good sign that they plan to be around for a while and truly are receiving good support from the networks.

A sample of the current shows.

• The Office
• Heroes
• Scrubs
• Chuck
• Kitchen Nightmares

Some of the dated content.

• The A-Team
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Airwolf (wow, who predicted would be broadcasting this again.  Yes, I'll admit I used to watch this one too)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• WKRP in Cincinnati

See a more complete list here (PDF format)

It's exciting to see the media companies finally making it convenient for customers to get content legally instead of prosecuting customers for downloading it illegally while waiting for you to catch up with the market.