Premity Hijacks Hulu

Written by A. L. Friedman

Friday, November 2. 2007 at 02:57 PM EDT Post a comment

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In a play for publicity that is both ingenious and most likely illegal, online coupon start-up Premity is mirroring videos from Hulu on its site. The back door doesn't give you any control over what you see, but if you want to watch four random videos from the large catalog of NBC and Fox shows on the site, knock yourself out.

This wouldn't really be a problem, as Hulu smartly allows everything to be embedded out in the wilds of the net, including ads. The Premity mirror by-passes the ad insertion step.

Hulu, the billion dollar NBC/News Corp. joint venture, launched Monday in private beta, with unlimited access to popular shows like The Office and House (as well as unpopular shows like Bones and Back to You). Understandably, those on the outside (and those not in the U.S.) have been eager to sign up. I doubt the Premity site will last long, but hopefully it will speed the site out of beta.

Anyway, Premity gets the inaugural Contentinople Shameless Internet Publicity Stunt award for the month. Good job, jerks.