Briefly: Hulu gets fall premieres first

Chris Tompkins — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:02:34 -0700

Hulu announced today that the fall premieres of Knight Rider, Lipstick Jungle, Chuck and Life will debut on Hulu first, before hitting network television. Viewers will also be able to see season premieres of Heroes, The Office and 30 Rock as well as other NBC and FOX shows when they are broadcast on network television. The move to debut season premieres on Hulu is a radical change from last season’s schedule where it was rare to be able to watch shows within a week of their original airing.

Debuting shows online first isn’t new, though. Tudors is shown on YouTube before being aired, and the premiere of Battlestar Galactica was shown earlier on NBCU than on television but later slinked back into a seven-day delay before weekly shows were shown on Hulu.

This announcement comes after Hulu also began a $50 million television advertising campaign to attract more viewers to the FOX and NBC joint website.

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