Hulu Channels

Hulu Channels are Hulu's method of categorizing its 1,700+ series, movies and specials. The channels cover the generally accepted TV series categorization of "Action and adventure', 'Animation', 'sports' etc, but also include surprising categories like, 'Video Games' and 'Web Originals'. Some larger Hulu channels like 'Comedy' and 'family' have been subdivided into smaller channels. The "Comedy" Channel is divided in Romance, Satire, Sitcoms, Sketch and Stand Up.

Comedy is by far the most popular channel on Hulu, containing TV shows like Family Guy, The Office, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, Scrubs, Dead Like Me, Chuck and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

The Other channel contains several interesting videos, mainly focusing on the best advertisements, including 'Super Bowl XLIII Ads' and 'Super Bowl XLII Ads', 'Hulu TV Ads' and 'AdZone 2010'.

Web Originals contains many videos, only available on Hulu.com, including National Geographics specials, but also several web only series, like 'Puppy Love', Web Therapy', 'PINK the Series' and 'CTRL'.

The Live Events and Specials channel is especially interesting during the Awards season. The channel shows fashion hits & misses, red carpet coverage, Coverage of the Oscars and Golden Globes, beauty pageants like Miss USA, but also coverage of events like Comic-Con 2009, The Presidential Inauguration, and the Dance On Camera Festival.http://www.hulu.com/channels/News-and-Information/Live-Events-and-Specials

Hulu vs YouTube

Hulu and YouTube have a very different approach to Channels. Hulu is a one-to-many broadcasting service, based on copyrighted material, which has mostly been previously broadcast on TV before appearing on Hulu. Within this concept, channels are a means of bundling and categorizing content to different types of content, allowing users to quickly find the types of TV shows they want to see. The entire process is mostly uni-directional, users can choose their show, watch it, and if-desired, rate the show. Users can discussion or review shows, but this is rarely used.

On the other hand, YouTube is highly interactive. Channels are everyone-s domain. Each user automatically gets assigned his own channel, which can be used to broadcast own content, share favorite contents by others, watch comments on your own videos, or provide comment on other's videos. YouTube also allows subscribing to other's channels, and even becoming 'friends'.

With this in mind, YouTube is more similar to social media, while Hulu is more in line with traditional television broadcasting.