Hulu is a website and over-the-top (OTT) subscription service offering ad-supported on demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and many other networks and studios. Hulu videos are currently offered only to users in the United States and its overseas territories.

Hulu provides video in Flash Video format, including many films and shows that are available in 288p, 360p, 480p, and in some cases, 720 HD. Hulu also provides web syndication services for other websites including AOL, MSN, MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo!, and Comcast’s fancast.com.

The radical new website is now being dubbed as the television of tomorrow. With its mission “Help people find and enjoy the world’s premium video content when, where and how they want it,” the site’s visitors are more than satisfied with its service.

Hulu is a joint venture of rival networks NBC Universal, part of Comcast; Fox Entertainment, part of the News Corporation; and ABC, part of Disney. An investment firm, Providence Equity Partners, owns about 10 percent.

They say partnerships of rivals rarely last. But with Hulu, it’s a different story as Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Apple and others are planning to buy the 4-year-old online company.