All Things Digital

Well, here’s a good reason not to write off Joost quite yet: When the London-based company officially debuts its new Web-based service in mid-October, it will have some pretty hot content with its half-dozen seasons of the former NBC hit, “Friends.”

Also, there will finally be no more irksome plug-ins.

In other words, anyone with an Internet connection can watch streaming television shows and movies on Joost, with advertising embedded in various forms.

There will also be social-networking elements–you can see what your friends watch and form groups, make comments with cool tools and the rest of that sort of thing.

While all this is not going to make up for the lost time the online video service has wasted with its annoying P2P-based desktop client download, going to a Web-based, all-Flash service with more robust content is certainly the right way to stop rival service Hulu from continuing to clean Joost’s clock.

Joost was first out of the gate last year with a giant slug of funding, fancy founders (Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, who were also founders of Web phenoms Skype and Kazaa) and blue-chip investors (Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, as well as CBS, Viacom and wealthy Hong Kong investor Li Ka-shing).

In any case, Hulu quickly grabbed the lead in terms of press praise (I ate my words even!), ease-of-use and, most importantly, user numbers.

In the most recent stats, for example, Hulu had more than 100 million monthly video streams and 3.3 million unique monthly visitors. (But since Joost has just soft-launched its new Web-only service, it’s hard to make comparisons just yet, although the competition is now clearly afoot!)

And, although it has been written off by some, I do not think it is too late for Joost.

First, it is still early in the premium online video game.

Second, success will depend on having increasing amounts of quality content. And Joost–with CBS, Warner Bros., Sony and other unusual content like anime–certainly can keep up with Hulu’s programs from its partner parents, News Corp. (News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones and this Web site) and NBC Universal.

Lastly, despite decent consumer uptake, the business is still in its nascent popcorn-stand stage of revenue and profit generation.

And while spending too much money and having too many employees did not help Joost, it seems as though CEO Mike Volpi has finally gotten control of the start-up beast.

Thus, while in London this week, I stopped in at the offices of Joost (near the famed King’s Cross train station, where, of course–to no avail–I tried to make it through the wall at Platform 9 3/4!) to chat with Volpi about all the changes at the much-hyped company.

Here’s a longish video, in which the always-well-turned-out former Cisco exec talks about all that and more:

While in Los Angeles, BoomTown visited the offices of Hulu, the online video service that has been an unexpected bright spot for two Hollywood behemoths–NBC Universal (GE) and News Corp. (NWS) (owner of this site)–who launched the premium online video service as a joint venture last year.

Helmed by former Amazon exec Jason Kilar, not much was expected of Hulu, given that traditional entertainment companies have been slower than slow in embracing the digitization of their businesses.

But, armed with the clout of its partners, along with $100 million in private equity from Providence Equity Partners, as I wrote back in late October, Hulu has been a pretty decent effort and has gained surprising traction, both in its distributed content and also on its site.

Yet despite its clean look, easy-to-use tools, relative openness and also addition of more and more premium content, it will still be a long slog for Hulu, as it tries to make a big business out of all of it and battle the increasing power of bigger sites like Google’s YouTube.

Nonetheless, so far, so good. And, so we visited its HQ in Santa Monica, Calif., with our No. 1 son, Louie Swisher (Hulu’s true audience) in tow to see how the service is put together and meet some of its employees.

Thus, this fine video, in which Louie does a very good dance interpretation of the service at the start–although what else would a mother say?

(Also, here is a longer interview with Kilar about Hulu and its future.)

Here’s BoomTown’s longer interview with the deceptively sharp Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, which I did while I was visiting the start-up recently.

In it, we discuss a wide range of topics about the premium online video service, which is a joint venture of NBC Universal (GE) and News Corp. (NWS) (owner of this site).

In it, he talks about everything from the reasons for the early success of Hulu to the state of content online in Hollywood to where it is all going to the sticky question of monetization (or lack thereof).

Also, when the heck is “Law & Order” going to be on Hulu? And “Seinfeld,” please.

(In addition, here is a video and post of my tour of Hulu HQ in Santa Monica, Calif., with Louie Swisher, who gives a very fine dance interpretation of the service at the start, I think you will agree.)

After a few months of private beta, Hulu will open itself to the public tomorrow with a full-court press of publicity.

Hulu kind of deserves at least a little more attention, despite efforts by some to look for warts in the online video service, which is a joint venture between NBC Universal (GE) and News Corp. (NWS)–owner of Dow Jones, which owns this site–with $100 million in private equity from Providence Equity Partners.

But, as I wrote back in late October, Hulu has been a pretty decent effort on the part of slow-moving media companies, despite some problems here and there that I noted.

Still, I wrote: “Hulu’s willingness to send its content far and wide from the get-go, with very little friction and using easy tools to do so, is perhaps the most compelling aspect of its debut.

Finally, someone in Hollywood has realized that ubiquitous distribution, which is being driven by consumers’ desire to move their media anywhere they want, whenever they want, is the future.

To shine itself up for new U.S.-only users, Hulu is adding more premium content, including about 100 full-length movies and also upping its television offerings to 250 full-length episodes.

The new licensing deals include Warner Bros. Television Group, Lionsgate, NBA and the NHL, and the movies include cult hits like “The Big Lebowski.”

In addition, Hulu is launching a new ad offering that lets users pick their own products to learn about and linking full movie trailer ads with content it relates to, which would then be streamed without interruption. For example, a trailer for the movie “Juno” might be seen before the television series “Arrested Development,” since both star actors Jason Bateman and Michael Cera.

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said he knows there needs to be a lot more professionally produced content on online video sites like Hulu from a wider range of content creators.

Hulu, for example, doe not have popular NBC shows like the “Law and Order” franchise, since it still has not reached an agreement with its powerful producer, Dick Wolf.

“We are trying to build the kind of audiences where we can monetize it well for all content creators,” Kilar said in an interview, noting the site had attracted five million users over the last 30 days. “When we have that economic power and an even larger audience, I think level heads will prevail in getting more and more content to consumers.”

And when that happens, as I wrote back in the fall, Hulu has done a nice job so far in designing the easy-to-use service, including allowing users to grab their own clips, although there are some small quibbles with its player (it can be slow, for example, but–to be fair–every Internet video site is slow).

In addition, Hulu’s business model, in which it shares ad revenues with content creators (for content that comes mostly from its owners), is still nascent and potentially problematic (see this interesting analysis from Silicon Alley Insider, for example).

But I do love those movable clips and I think the public will too, ads and all.

For example, here is a recent entire episode of my new favorite show, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” (How much do we love Summer Glau’s flat affect as a teenage cybernetic organism? So much), which I easily embedded here:

I think we can safely say the magic multimedia strategy once touted back in Web 1.0 as the savior of old media is now almost completely discounted.

So posits Valleywag’s Owen Thomas in an excellent short analysis of the deal for NBC Universal to buy women’s media cable channel and Web site company Oxygen Media for $925 million announced Tuesday.

“The fact that I’m describing it as, yes, a ‘cable-TV channel’ speaks to Oxygen’s failure,” wrote Thomas yesterday. “Conceived in 2000 as a multimedia empire that would bridge the Web and TV, Oxygen failed to thrive in either medium.”

While it seems like about a million years ago, the Oprah-backed Oxygen, headed by TV veteran exec Geraldine Laybourne, had a very splashy debut only seven years ago and sported a slate of prominent backers like talk show behemoth Oprah and also a spate of dot-com luminaries of the time.

What was stressed then was the tight integration between the cable network, original television programming and pricey Web site, which actually included very good early versions of what would later be called blogs and other small innovations. It was all supposed to herald a cross-promotional matrix of untold influence.

None of this came to pass, of course, and NBCU, said one longtime television exec to me today, was essentially only buying itself a women’s cable play to add to its stable of other cable properties, more than any doubling down in the Web space to aid NBC-owned iVillage.

Thus, the search for multimedia nirvana goes on.

And on the seventh day, at least we did not get another lump of Sugar.

After a year of manic site creation, Brian Sugar actually bought his first company, rather than extend his name further in the online women-focused arena.

Yesterday, Sugar’s San Francisco-based Sugar Publishing–which includes the flagship PopSugar (celebs), GeekSugar (tech), CasaSugar (home), YumSugar (food), well, we could go on but won’t for fear of lapsing into a diabetic coma–changed its name to Sugar Inc. and also acquired ShopStyle.com.

The all-equity deal for the Los Altos, Calif.-based social-shopping site will give Sugar a nice bit of technology to play in the Web commerce space more aggressively, with features that allow the quick creation of shopping widgets using products grabbed from all over the Internet.

Think of a digital version of one of those massive kitten-heel shoe spreads in Lucky magazine that also allows you to instantly buy stuff you see and you’ve got the right idea.

We sat down with the jumpy (really, he is) Brian Sugar and made a video interview recently, after noticing the tear he and his wife Lisa have been on since they founded their mini-empire last year.

Their activity has caused notice–last year, Yahoo almost bought the network of sites. The Sugars were probably glad they missed that bullet now, as their sites seem to be growing faster without a big partner.

The start-up is backed by Sequoia Capital and also NBC Universal, which have both sunk $15 million in total into the company, which uses a unique cross-pollinating style to grow its audience to about 5 million unique visitors a month.

NBC, via its iVillage subsidiary, sells the Sugar Network’s ads in a guaranteed deal for the company.

While it is a crowded space in all of Sugar’s subsidiaries, it’s also nice to see a sassy effort from the Sugars, who use a sweeter (sorry!) approach to coverage–some might call it saccharine (sorry again!) even–in the blog genre.

In other words, Lindsay Lohan is still a drunken, drug-addled mess, but don’t those super white nails look amazing!!!

The new buy is in keeping with Brian Sugar’s background of online commerce (top stints at J. Crew online and also Kmart’s ill-conceived BlueLight.com) and give Sugar sites another tool in an interesting arsenal.

“We’re aimed at an ADD culture,” said Sugar to me yesterday, and he is not kidding.

Each of his more than a dozen sites–yes, there is also a social network called TeamSugar, as well as a tagging site called, yep, Sugarlicio.us–has from 15 to 25 posts a day, with the user-generated content numbering upward of 15,000 items.

It all makes us feel like we’ve gained five pounds by just lingering on the sites. (Sorry once again, but these sugar puns are hard to resist!).

See Sugar in action:

Summer is officially over, kids, so back to school (including my own son Louie–pictured below as a sword-fighting Mexican wrestler and astronaut–who starts kindergarten this morning!).

And no more Burning Man, either (we completely ignored the annual techie Valhalla in this blog, because it evoked a very dusty and peyote feeling that we just have never felt the need to learn about close up and personal)!

In other words, time to get serious about the business at hand!

Namely, cranking the volume up to 11 on our ongoing efforts to figure out a few choice things about several different Internet companies.

Much as the television networks tout their crappy fall slate, here’s my September lineup:

1. Yahoo–natch! Could we possibly give up on this ongoing dramedy, when we are almost at the midway point of CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang’s 100-day Vision Quest to turn around the troubled Web icon? I think not! Like that new let’s-just-dispense-with-subtlety series on ABC called “Dirty Sexy Money,” it has everything: Money! Power! Sex! (Ok, not so much sex.) But: Money! Power! Search!

Tomorrow is officially Day 50 for Yang, and we’re going to spend the week asking smart people what they’d do to fix Yahoo.

Also, of course, we have requested interviews with everyone from Hilary Schneider to Sue Decker to Yang, and, curiously, the phone is not ringing with calls.

Nonetheless, we will not rest in our efforts to bring Yahoo to you–Garlinghouse! Ismail! Horowitz! Fake! Bhat! Boerries! Those not-Lloyd guys down in Santa Monica!

2. Facebook. Facebook. Facebook. Also Mark Zuckerberg, unavoidable, of course. And those other guys there, whose names escape you because only Zuckerberg says cheese for the magazine covers. Will they IPO or will they sell or will they stand pat? Kind of like “Deal or No Deal,” but without the suspense.

They will. One of those choices. Or not.

3. Hey, what about MySpace? Aren’t they No. 1? By far? I am itching to try to figure out what’s going on down there in Beverly Hills, what with all the attention and momentum Facebook seems to have of late.

So how is MySpace really faring? And what are its prospects for growth? What are its weaknesses (the chatter in the Valley, the Silicon one, is increasing technology challenges as it grows ever larger)? Is owner Rupert Murdoch angling to unload it? Or perhaps double-down with a play for Facebook, too? (I know, stupid, as it’s too costly now even for the master dealmaker.)

Television comparison: The return of “Grey’s Anatomy”–has it jumped the shark with that left-at-the-altar trick? Much in the same way, with its concerts and new offerings, can the hits keep on coming from MySpace?

4. AOL reminds me a little bit of “Desperate Housewives”–I stopped watching long ago, but I still really hope Felicity Huffman is doing OK (not so much Teri Hatcher).

I guess it was the two books I wrote on the online pioneer that hooked me, but I am truly interested in seeing what will happen to the service as it continues to stumble on.

Will CEO Randy Falco’s online entertainment plans work? (No, but they should!) Will AOL’s ad business take off? (No, but it should!). Will its cool side companies like Truveo and Userplane get the attention they deserve? (No, but they should, too!) Will it ever be spun off from the suffocating arms of its parent Time Warner? (You know the answer by now!)

5. Google. Microsoft. It’s going to be like a war between the 2007 one (Michelle Ryan) and the 1997 “Bionic Woman” (Lindsay Wagner). We don’t need to elaborate further, except to say pull up a chair and enjoy the show, as some cyborgs are going to really be kicking some you-know-what. And it’s going to be pretty!

6. Let’s not leave out the oldies like eBay, Amazon (Jeff, don’t think I have forgotten you!) and IAC, as well as newcomers like Joost, Hulu and the plethora of other interesting new companies now on the scene (with more to come).

With topics like copyright, privacy, innovation, growth and the continued Hollywood-Silicon Valley tussling, it’ll be a great time, as usual, to be watching the digital arena.

And even NBC Universal and Apple’s fighting over price, which now means I will not get to watch “Heroes” on my iPhone, will not deter me.

Although I beg and plead with the thickheaded pair: Save the cheerleader! Save the world! Save my $1.99 an episode!