Hulu's former leader makes his answer to YouTube available to everyone
Want to know how the former CEO of Hulu would build a video service that could take on YouTube? You now have an easy way to find out: after a couple of months of invitation-only testing, Vessel is available to everyone. As promised, Jason Kilar's newly launched brainchild is a mix of ordinary, ad-supported free video with a premium tier. Pay $3 per month (you get a free year if you sign up in the first three days) and you'll both ditch ads as well as get early access to videos from a mix of internet stars and conventional media outlets, including A&E, Rhett & Link, Unbox Therapy and Warner Music Group. At least some content isn't affected by that time delay, though, so you'll still have some comedy, music videos and news to watch if you're not especially patient.
You'll have to use Vessel's iOS app or the web to start watching right now. We've asked about apps for Android and other platforms, and we'll let you know if they're coming soon. However the device support shakes out, Vessel has an uphill battle ahead. While the service has exclusive deals, the size of incumbents like YouTube and Vimeo is hard to ignore -- Kilar will have to do a lot to persuade creators that they'll make more money through Vessel's subscriber-funded model instead of posting everywhere at once. So long as there's enough good material, though, it should be worth trying out to get rid those annoying pre-roll promos and pop-up banners from other sites.
