Welcome to Hulu!

Virtually every day I see another story about the media lines blurring. TV on the web. The web on TV. Radio everywhere. It is an incredibly exciting time to monitor media today. The latest addition to this change is a website called Hulu. I heard about it on the Today Show (and Hulu was created by its parent company, GE and News Corp, what a surprise).

Don't be fooled by the name, it has nothing to do with Hawaii or dancing (oh, that's hula), but it has a great deal to do about how people will get entertained. The site is a huge TV and movie treasure chest with full episodes of shows you typically can't find on TV. This includes Time Tunnel, Welcome Back Kotter, Dragnet, and more. I think I might be spending some time on it. The movie section is not nearly as interesting and is largely dominated by "B" flicks. However, on a slow TV night, some will watch them.

Many -- if not most -- of the the TV episodes and Movies are in their entirety, although there are also numerous clips. My gut tells me few will go for the clips because they can find much more at YouTube and Google video, but I do believe the site will be a hit. It is, again, one more example of how media is changing forever.

The site will be a work in progress and starting with a strange name like "Hulu" will do nothing to attract traffic in my opinion. But I think this site will likely be another benchmark in the move away from traditional media.

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Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

Movies are Very Big Business

For a while we heard that the future of movies were in question, but I believe their future is very bright. I think of my own personal circumstances. For a while I simply never got movies or went to them, often for the same reasons I didn't watch network news, it was inconvenient and there were too many other easy sources for news (Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, etc.) and movies (USA, AMC, TCM, etc.) on cable to go out of my way to rent movies or even go to them.

However, with the rise of the Redbox, where I can rent movies all over town for a $1 and leave them at any one of their locations, I find that my family is renting many more movies. Recently, I went by and noticed that the number I have personally seen was huge. I have also noticed a rising interest in independent films. Probably roughly half of the movies I watch falls in that category. These films are relatively cheap to make (sometimes only 6 digits) and through the numerous distribution networks available (theaters that cater to such films, rental machines, online services, etc.) the possibility of high returns is very good.

Now, it seems everywhere I go, I come across another aspiring movie maker. In fact, I have at least five friends who either have made or in the process of making a movie. Those who have made them have figured out how to make a little profit. New technology is exploding on the scene to make the production of movies more affordable and far easier to do. I'm hoping that the rise of independent films, particularly those of the pro-family variety, will give Hollywood and its culture a run for the money.

Reign Over Me: An Excellent Film that Brings September 11th Close to Home

There are now several epic dramas on the horror we all know as September 11th. Some are from the perspective of those who were on the planes that crashed into the towers. Others were the stories who tried to survive in the buildings after they were hit. Others, still, are of the heroic individuals who came to the rescue. Reign Over Me is not like any of these films.

Reign Over Me is the story of Dr. Charlie Fineman (Adam Sadler) who tragically lost his wife and daughters on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. Unlike most victims of major loss who, some how, slowly put their lives back together, Fineman not only fails to move forward but goes back into the past, becoming like an irresponsible teenager who is financed by insurance money following the tragedy.

Yet he is clearly in pain and a lost soul, roaming through the city of New York or playing video games. This remains the case until he runs across his old college roommate, Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle). Fineman tries to drag his old friend into his world of denial and adolescence, but Johnson is married with children of his own.

The two go through numerous incidents filled with humor and drama that leads to the end of the story. That is something you are going to have to watch yourself. The movie was really quite profound to me and showed me that there are thousands of individuals who were directly devastated by September 11th. There are thousands more related to those individuals and are also affected. This tragedy continues to spread. This is a powerful drama that reminds me why we fight the war of terror. I'm sure it wasn't their point in making it, but it still had that type of impact on me.

Regardless of your view of the war or the movie, this film is a "must see" picture. This film was brilliantly acted by all the major characters and it is something I look forward to seeing again. You have heard the saying, "it made me laugh and it made me cry." That is the story of Reign Over Me.