Web TV / IPTV / DTV

So, Hulu has launched amidst much hullabaloo, and has gained a bit of a halo - I quite liked Kara Swisher's take as she is less prone to Geek-gasms than many:

There are, of course, a lot of open questions, such as how costly all these media rights are and how to make advertising pay for them. And it is not clear consumers are willing to embrace yet another destination site.

But Hulu’s willingness to send its content far and wide from the get-go, with very little friction and using easy tools to do so, is perhaps the most compelling aspect of its debut.

Finally, someone in Hollywood has realized that ubiquitous distribution, which is being driven by consumers’ desire to move their media anywhere they want, whenever they want, is the future.

The willingness to embrace the new business models and make the service easy to use are key. Some see it as a YouTube riposte, we think the Web TV plays that rely on the same content as Hulu (like Joost) are actually under more threat as Hulu is not really a UGC play,which YouTube will surely evolve to once the major players really sort out the takedown process (and if you can get good quality TV on hulu, why faff around with YouTube).