Zucker: Hulu ahead of plan, launching 'Hulu Labs'

NBC CEO Jeff Zucker said Hulu is "doing ok" and that the goal for the next 18 months is "to increase monetization," during an interview at the All Things Digital Conference in San Francisco Thursday. Zucker said the site is ahead of plan and will be profitable soon, and that it has succeeded in every sense.

He also mentioned the launch of a new feature called "Hulu Labs," which is now live. Hulu Labs will be a R&D tool to get customer feedback on areas the site needs to improve or could expand, according to Zucker.

Hulu Labs currently has four "experimental projects" for users to try and discuss: Hulu Desktop, Recommendations, Video Panel Designer, and Time Based Browsing.

Hulu Desktop is a full-screen display function for a lean-back experience on the PC, and it's compatible with Apple and Windows Media Center remote controls, allowing users "to navigate the entire Hulu catalog with six buttons."

The Recommendations feature is a content referral function that gives recommendations based on previously viewed content, a la Amazon and Netflix. Hulu claims this feature is updated and improved from its previous recommendation system.

Video Panel Designer allows users to design color schemes and layouts for embedded Hulu players, making it more tightly incorporated with other site designs.

Finally, Time Based Browsing groups videos by air date to help users discover more content.

Let us know what you think of the new features, and we'll keep an eye out for how they affect Hulu's audience and time-on-site metrics.

For more:
- see the Baron Blogs coverage of Zucker's interview here 

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