Hulu.com., the joint venture between Fox and NBC that provides streaming video content online, announced a deal this week that The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are now available through the site. Hulu.com came out of beta on March 15 and has seen a steady share of US Internet traffic since, as illustrated in the following chart.

The site ranked 33 among Multimedia websites last week and 84 among Television websites. It is often compared with YouTube, the leader in online video, as Hulu.com is seen as the networks' attempt to steal back YouTube's audience for copyrighted network programs. Hulu is still in its infancy and last week, YouTube attracted nearly 300 times more traffic than Hulu.com

The top source of traffic for Hulu.com is Google followed, ironically, by YouTube. Last week, 30% of Hulu's search traffic came from paid listings. Analysis of those terms reveals that Hulu.com is paying for traffic from searches for programs it hosts, in particular Family Guy and The Office.

Hulu's success is in large part dependent on word of mouth. Search volume for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are relatively low and so adding these shows alone won't boost traffic levels. Hulu needs word to spread about their content and we'll continue to watch search volume for "hulu" and visits to Hulu.com for signs that the site is gaining fans.

Heather Hopkins

Heather Hopkins is VP of Research for Hitwise UK. This piece was originally posted on Hitwise Analyst blog here.