• MediaPost, Wednesday, August 29, 2007 11:30 AM

The much-hyped online joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal that will stream full episodes of hit series such as "The Simpsons" and "My Name is Earl" finally has a name: Hulu.com. An invitation to get on the beta waiting list went live today. "Why Hulu?" wrote the venture's CEO Jason Kilar on the site.

"Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building." Kilar -- named CEO of the stand-alone company NewSite that runs Hulu -- noted the site's "never-ending mission ... is to help you find and enjoy the world's premier content when, where and how you want it."

News Corp. and NBCU have been coy about the video destination's moniker since the announcement of the venture came in March. Hulu - looks to be a "YouTube killer," since it will offer full episodes of network and cable hits plus movies, as opposed to a heavy emphasis on user-generated low-quality videos. It recently received a financial infusion, via a reported $100 million investment by private-equity firm Providence Equity Partners, which gave that group a 10% stake.

Visitors to Hulu.com can now sign up to receive an invitation to use the site once the content actually is available for viewing -- only the names of shows will be available sits on the home page so far. Kilar indicated the site -- which will be free and ad-supported -- goes live in October, a month after executives at the partner media companies had indicated it would. --David Goetzl

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