Hulu.com hit by Viacom’s exit

Viacom would be pulling off shows like “The Daily show” and “The Colbert Report” from March 9 onwards, which were being broadcasted on the Hulu website since its inception in 2008.

Hulu is said to be seriously affected by Viacom’s decision as both the shows, featuring on the site for the last 21 months, are its most watched programs.

Reasons behind the drift
Though backed by giants like NBC, Fox and ABC, Hulu had grown substantially weak, and Viacom felt least obligated to help Hulu get back on track, as unlike Fox and NBC, it is not a stakeholder of Hulu.

Money demanded by Viacom to host the two shows, including hefty down payments, was a major factor behind the companies partying ways, according to Fast Company.

“We tried to reach a deal. We got close. We continued to talk even over the weekend. But we could not agree on a price,” said a Hulu executive involved in the negotiations with Viacom.

Viewers’ option of watching programs on ComedyCentral.com
Though the users have been given the option of watching these programs on ComedyCentral.com, the fans are left disappointed by the inefficiency of ComedyCentral.com to provide them with the video-embedding technology like Hulu’s.

The video-embedding technology offered by Hulu is the main reason behind the site becoming popular amongst young users in the nation, allowing them to share their favorite parts of the programs on the Web.

Hulu’s fan following
A joint enterprise by NBC Universal, Fox Entertainment Group, and ABC Inc. (Walt Disney Group), Hulu with over 1 billion video views per month, is next only to Youtube in terms of traffic.

The provider of numerous videos in flash video formats, ranging from shows from NBC, Fox, and many others, has remained the most used site for video sharing since its origin on the Web.

Web syndication services for sites like Facebook, MSN, AOL and Yahoo! is an additional feature offered by Hulu to its huge fan following.