Hulu pushes more than 100 million streams in July, starts advertising

Online video venture Hulu streamed 105 million videos in July according to Nielsen's VideoCensus. Hulu, a joint NBC Universal-News Corp. operation, hosts high-quality free streaming movies, TV shows and clips. The site includes full episodes of popular shows like The Daily Show with John Stewart, The Simpsons, Family Guy and The Office. Hulu also has a limited selection of full-length movies, mostly older ones like The Karate Kid and Ghostbusters, but also some more recent features like Sideways and Master and Commander.

Since it launched last March, Hulu has mostly grown through word-of-mouth and media coverage, but now AdWeek reports that Crispin Porter + Bogusky will run a $50 million account for Hulu, with ads on "NBC and News Corp. properties as well as outside media outlets."

The site has been more successful than some analysts thought it would be. Hulu was originally thought to be mostly an alternative to YouTube where NBC and News Corp. could post clips and be in full control of content and, more importantly, advertising revenue. Instead, the site has become a destination for a younger audience which is tied much closer to the free-wheeling on-demand Internet, rather than the schedule of traditional broadcast television.

TechCrunch's Mike Arrington, a fierce Hulu critic, lavished praises on the site in June when Hulu started offering full episodes of The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report, from Comedy Central.

Because Hulu is now streaming full episodes of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, from Comedy Central. No more Tivo. No more dealing with BitTorrent. I can just log in and watch the show in 480p, and that makes me very, very happy.

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