AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Hulu Gears up for Launch - NewTeeVee

With “hundreds of thousands” of users in its private beta and three times the amount of content it had at launch, Hulu is readying itself to open to the public in the next two months.

Hulu CTO Eric Feng stopped by NewTeeVee HQ this week and shared a progress check as well as some forward-looking thoughts on the product he’s been building since last summer, when Hulu acquired his video markup company Mojiti.

Chris and I were particularly interested to hear about Hulu’s engagement figures. Feng said users are spending more than half an hour on the service at a time, and they appear to be more interested in full-length shows than clips. More than 80 percent of the entire Hulu catalog is watched each week, he said.

Hulu does want to internationalize — Feng more than anyone, as he manages half his engineering team in Beijing — but is concerned that the site can only get authorization to show foreign users a small portion of content. In the meantime, Hulu is improving flexibility in other areas. Whole seasons of ongoing shows like 30 Rock are now available instead of the “five-week trailing” limitations (meaning older episodes would expire) the site started with.

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