Hulu Versus TV Everywhere: What Happens After The Comcast-NBC Merger Is Complete?

The pending $30 billion merger of Comcast and NBC-Universal is going to complicate things for Hulu , the second most popular online video site after YouTube. Hulu is a joint venture between NBC, News Corp/Fox, and ( since last year ) Disney/ABC. It was created by the TV networks as a counterweight to YouTube, a safe place where they could run their full-length TV shows online with their own ads. Comcast, however, is championing TV Everywhere , which is an entirely different model for professionally-produced Web video. TV Everywhere is going to put TV channels online behind a paywall where only existing cable subscribers can watch them. Once Comcast owns a part of Hulu, there will be more pressure to put parts of Hulu behind a paywall as well. One knowledgeable industry source speculates that "Comcast will push Hulu very hard to become an authenticated destination for TV Everywhere."