Back in March, News Corp. and NBC Universal announced plans for an ambitious online video endeavor to distribute films and television shows across the Internet. Today, the companies have finally baptized its "YouTube killer" as Hulu.

"Why Hulu? Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building," Hulu CEO Jason Kilar explained.
Hulu will attempt to take on its deeply entrenched, globally dominant competitor YouTube, with full episodes of smash hit TV shows from News Corp.'s Fox network, like 24 and American Idol, as well as those from NBC, like Heroes and Saturday Night Live. The site is now accepting requests to be part of the private beta test, which is expected in October.