Everyone loves Hulu. Everyone who can actually watch it, that is, a demographic that has until now included only people in the U.S. (or savvy geospoofers). According to an article in the Telegraph, the service is set to launch in the UK in September, featuring about 3,000 hours of U.S. content in addition to shows from the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4. That is, if negotiations about who controls the advert sales around the ITV and Channel 4 content get ironed out. Hulu wants to run the show, while the networks are (unsurprisingly) not quite so eager to turn over that control. Chalk it up to cultural differences? And when, oh when, will the rest of the world get all that Hulu goodness? No official word on that yet, but surely the UK plans are a good sign.

The UK Competitions Commission effectively blocked the Kangaroo VOD service from launching with its final report, released today, in which chairman Peter Freeman said the service “would be too much of a threat to competition in this developing market and has to be stopped.” It’s a blow to BBC Worldwide, ITV, and Channel 4, and unsurprisingly, the partners are calling it a “missed opportunity in the development of British broadcasting.” As much as I’m in favor of unfettered competition, I have to say I think the commission blew this one. PaidContent:UK has some great analysis of the decision here.

Thanks to everyone involved—speakers, sponsors, delegates, visitors—for making this year’s event a resounding success. We had 768 attendees, which is a whopping 54% increase over 2007; what’s more, those attendees represented 23 countries and a who’s who of prominent organisations across all market verticals. Attendees were present from the likes of Alcatel-Lucent, BT Media & Broadcast, GlaxoSmithKline, ITV, TV 2 Danmark,Télévision Suisse Romande, TV 4 Group Sweden, the University of Helsinki, and King Saud University. We also had 35 stands in the exhibit hall, which is nearly twice as many as last year. 

Soon, we’ll start planning for Streaming Media Europe 2009, so if you’ve got any comments or suggestions about how we can make next year’s show better, please note them in the comments section.