Hulu.com, the long-gestating Internet joint venture between NBC Universal and Fox, emerges from limited testing on Wednesday to make its catalog of TV shows and video clips available to anyone on the Web.

The streaming-video site displays free, ad-supported shows and feature films from NBC, Fox and more than 50 media companies, including Sony Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
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With the real estate mess upon us, amid all sorts of other economic woes, the world’s media economy would seem especially at risk. Yet so far it’s looking like it will fare decently during the recession that’s looming.

In part that’s because this is an election and Olympics year in the U.S., which always gives a powerful boost to the global media economy.
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Back a long time ago, there were sandwich men, so called because they walked back and forth on the sidewalk with signs hanging front and behind from their shoulders.

Things have come a long way. The new thing is teams performing elaborately choreographed routines, much like cheerleaders, in which signs are part of the act. It’s known as spinning.
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The music Web site Pitchforkmedia.com announced Tuesday that it will launch its own version of MTV on April 7 dedicated to independent music.

The Web site attracts more than 200,000 visitors a day and is widely recognized as the most influential music destination on the Internet. For the last two summers the Pitchfork Music Festival has attracted tens of thousands of fans from around the world to Union Park on the West Side to see the site’s hand-picked bands in concert.
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