Ah, the power of cute animals, corn on the cob and pairing these two with a popular sports event. It’s clearly undeniable. For those of you wondering which team Teddy picked, see for yourself:

As you can see from Teddy’s video, he has no such qualms about his pick. He slams the jar with the New England Patriots helmet to the side, in favor of the jar with the New York Giants helmet on it. From there, Teddy did what most animals are wont to do when presented with food — he devoured the corn — almost confirming his commitment to his Giants pick.

Teddy, as indicated, is already a viral hit. Thanks to his Super Bowl pick, Teddy no seems like he’s on cusp of Internet superstardom. His Twitter account is up to date with all of his appearances:

There’s nothing wrong with a little self-promotion, and with that in mind, we’ll help out Teddy’s viral cause by showing his appearance on NBC’s Today Show, courtesy of Hulu:

This week, we added approximately two hundred PBS episodes to Hulu Plus, including dozens of episodes from Ken Burns library, the first season of Masterpiece: Downton Abbey and episodes of PBS Kids series including Arthur, Dinosaur Train and Wild Kratts. We will also add hundreds more episodes over the coming weeks, including more kids’ favorites like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Superwhy, as well as additional episodes of NOVA, Masterpiece and American Experience – top-quality PBS series that Hulu users have already come to enjoy.

As a Downton Abbey skeptic, I can now say that all of the buzz surrounding the show is totally justified. Plus, who wouldn’t get excited about NOVA and Mister Rogers?

Some of this content, including Ken Burns docus and Masterpiece programming has been either entirely or partially available on rival Netflix for a while.

Hulu Plus is currently offering a free trial, and after that is $7.99 a month. It is available online, as well as on Xbox, PS3, and Android/iOS apps.

As the 2012 Super Bowl ads roll in during the big game on February 5th, they will become available on the channel as well.

We’re kicking off the Hulu AdZone, presented by Toyota. AdZone offers you easy access to all of the Super Bowl ads available on Hulu today, from iconic ads from as early as 1973 to preview ads from 2012 (like VW’s Bark Side). Browse through ads from 2008 to 2011, and new this year, Hulu has partnered with Advertising Age to highlight celebrity cameos as well as their expert picks for the most iconic Super Bowl ads of all time, including Apple’s groundbreaking “1984.” And don’t forget to come back on game day, February 5, to watch all of this year’s ads in real time, share them with your friends, and vote for your favorites. We’ll announce our users’ pick for the best ad of 2012 on Monday, February 6.

YouTube has also launched their Super Bowl ad channel this year, Ad Blitz. It works a lot like Hulu’s Ad Zone – as in it will display all the new ads once they air during the game, and users will be allowed to vote on their favorites.

Hulu’s interface is putting a little more emphasis on the nostalgia of Super Bowl ads and taking you on a trip down memory lane – from Mean Joe Green to Volkswagen’s popular ad “The Force.”

Along with the Ad Age’s “best ads of all time” category, AdZone has categories for leaked and preview ads, Hulu editor picks, celebrity cameo ads, baby and animal ads, and fan-made submissions.

Head on over to AdZone to see a comprehensive playlist of the most memorable Super Bowl ads of all time. Or whet your appetite with my favorite, Terry Tate: Office Linebacker.

U.S. internet denizens watched a lot of online video in December – 23.2 hours per viewer. Throughout the entire month, a total of 182 million users watched a whopping 43.5 billion videos.

As far as unique viewers go, Google sites led the charge nearly tripling up the next closest competitor, VEVO. Google claimed 157.2 million unique viewers who watched 21.9 billion videos in December. Google sites also held high viewer engagement with about 7.9 hours of watching per user.

Hulu, who finished in 8th place in terms of unique viewers with 31.2 million, also had impressive engagement. Hulu users spent a little over 3 hours on average watching videos on the site.

Americans also viewed a total of 7.2 billion ads last month, spanning 3 billion minutes. These video ads accounted for 14.1% of all the online videos viewed in the month of December. Hulu was tops in terms of video ad impressions with around 1.5 billion. They were closely followed by adapt.tv with 1.1 billion and Tremor Video with 900 million.

Finally, VEVO is still the top YouTube partner with 53.5 million viewers. They also had the highest engagement numbers with 66.9 minutes per viewer over the course of the month.

A couple of bonus figures: 85.3% of the entire U.S. internet community viewed online videos. The length of those online videos averaged out to 5.8 minutes, and the average ad was only 24 seconds long.

Netflix announced earlier this month that it would be launching a new show called Lilyhammer in February. This is the second exclusive show for Netflix, though it will actually premiere ahead of the first (House of Cards).

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Hulu will “roll out two new shows between now and summer, while bringing back a third it debuted last year. The new shows include a half-hour scripted comedy about a dysfunctional Senate campaign, dubbed ‘Battleground,’ beginning in February, and a travelogue show from director Richard Linklater.”

The other show would be the Morgan Spurlock vehicle “A Day in the Life,” which will reportedly return in March.

Hulu recently announced it would be investing half a billion dollars in content for 2012. The service has grown significantly in the past year, having hit $420 million in revenue.

It’s probably fair to say that we’re only going to see more and more original programming coming to the web’s major online video providers (including YouTube).

It’s clear that a lot of people (who haven’t done so already) are about ready to “cut the cord” from their cable companies, and offerings like these will only give them less dependence on cable and satellite providers.

Hulu posted the results of last year on their blog while offering some hints on what the future will hold for the online television streaming service.

Hulu has grown to be a big boy with a 60 percent increase from last year. They approximately made $420 million in revenue. They are especially proud of their growth in spite of a slow economy in the latter half of 2011. Along those lines, their ad business grew along with their Hulu Plus business.

Speaking of Hulu Plus, the service now boasts 1.5 million paying subscribers. The number continues to grow at a fast clip. They boast that they reached 1.5 million subscribers faster than any other video subscription service. They are also attracting two times the number of subscribers each day compared to last year. They also expect Hulu Plus to make up half of their overall business later this year.

In 2011, Hulu expanded the content available to their customers by quite a lot. Their content offering grew 40 percent over last year. Their Hulu Plus content grew by an astounding 105 percent. They also boast that Hulu Plus is the only online video subscription service that offers current season content from five out of the 6 largest U.S. broadcast networks.

The company introduced apps last year that allowed users to access the service from a variety of devices including the Xbox 360, Kindle Fire, NOOK tablet, Android smartphones, LG, Panasonic and Vizio TVs and Blu-ray players.

The Hulu advertising service led the online advertising market last year with the largest market share. They have served over 1,000 brand advertisers. They also claim to have the most effective video advertising with tools that allow users to decide what ads they see.

These figures as well as having just launched in Japan leave the company feeling pretty giddy. They are being somewhat mum though on what the future holds. They do offer their conviction that digital is the future of television and video content. They also claim that due to their dual revenue stream with Hulu Plus, they are able to pay content providers 50 percent more in licensing fees. They believe this will help them secure more content in 2012. To that end, the company announced that they are investing half a billion dollars in content for 2012.

Are you a Hulu fan? Are you excited about their investment plan for 2012? Let us know in the comments.

Were you one of the subscribers that pulled the plug on your cable this past year? Tell us what prompted your decision in the comments below.

Whether you already dumped your cable company or are entertaining the notion of doing so later this year, you’re a part of a constituency that is increasingly finding the notion of life without cable to be an attractive reality. Deliotte, an accountancy firm that follows business trends in media, released the results of their sixth State of the Media Democracy earlier this week and it doesn’t forecast sunnier skies for cable companies in 2012. According to the press release:

A number of Americans have already cut, or are exploring cutting their pay TV connection entirely. Deloitte’s survey found that 9 percent of people have already cut the cord and 11 percent are considering doing so because they can watch almost all of their favorite shows online. An additional 15 percent of respondents said that they will most likely watch movies, television programs, and videos from online digital sources (via download or streamed over the Internet) in the near future.

Moreover, the number of people citing streaming delivery of a movie to their computer or television as their favorite way of watching a movie rose to 14 percent from 4 percent in 2009.

Are you paying attention, cable companies? As much as one-fifth of your cable subscribers could possibly abandon your pricey ships by the end of this year in order to swim ashore the more agreeable environs of the Internet where, presumably, they aren’t going to be bilked for egregious amounts of money.

It gets worse for cable companies as the study says that 42% of Americans reported streaming a movie, as opposed to 28% in 2009. People are catching on to this Internet thing but, amazingly, there still may be hope for cable companies. The survey continues:

“Consumers have shown that they value DVR functionality, yet the majority of Americans don’t have a DVR in the home. This represents a potential opportunity for cable and satellite TV providers,” said said Phil Asmundson, vice chairman and U.S. media & telecommunications sector leader, Deloitte LLP. “In a world where consumers have other ways to access content, the DVR may be an underutilized service that could serve as a value-add for new and existing subscribers at minimal cost to cable and satellite TV companies.”

In fact, 44% of those surveyed have DVR technologies but the question is: will cable companies actually try to capitalize on the opportunity mentioned here by Asmundson? Probably not, as so far they have generally just tried to limit Internet access or pass off their financial short-comings to the consumers that keep them relevant.

Add to the mix that Americans are currently in the throes of a heated love affair with their smartphones, which is another means for people to watch videos via Internet.

The number of households owning smartphones jumped to 42 percent in 2011 from 25 percent in 2009. Furthermore, the number of consumers interested in purchasing a smartphone in the near future increased to 52 percent in 2011 from 40 percent in 2010.

Throw the surging tablet market into the media mix and – I enjoy saying this every time – cable companies look like they might be on the ropes.

So does anybody think that cable companies have a future? Have any of you cancelled your cable subscriptions this past year or, better yet, are deliberating toward the decision to “cut the cord” this year? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

Netflix added new content to Netflix Instant this year, but also lost a key deal with Starz, which means the Netflix will lose important new releases from Disney and Sony.

And then there was the whole Qwikster mess, you remember, right? That’s the time when Reed Hastings thought it was a good idea to split Netflix’s streaming services and their DVD serives into two entirely separate companies. If you recall, that went over really well terribly.

Netflix’s Q3 earnings report showed that although posting record revenue, Netflix did in fact lose some subscribers as a result of these moves (as they predicted they would). Actually, they lost a lot of subscribers – about 800,000 to be exact.

Some users left Netflix all together, and some just dropped one of the services. It’s no secret that Netflix is trying to move away from physical DVD rentals – so subscriber loss in that department is really part of the plan.

New research by Citigroup suggests that Netflix might be weathering the storm.

As you can see, Netflix subscribers in May reported being “extremely satisfied” with the service at a much higher rate than respondents in December. But December saw an increase in people saying they were “very satisfied” and “moderately satisfied.” All in all, 91% in December said that they were at least moderately satisfied with Netflix, down only 1% from the 92% that answered that way back in May.

Netflix subscribers that stuck around might not be as ecstatic as they were back in May, but it doesn’t look they they are too unhappy to stay.

Here’s another chart from the survey, showing Netflix compared to other streaming video sources:

Not only has Netflix increased its reach in the online video sphere, but most of the others remain stagnant. Folks saying that they watched streaming video on Hulu dipped 4% from May.

Netflix has said that they fully expect to lose more subscribers. Can competitors actually close the gap? Or is Netflix going to weather the storm? Let us know in the comments.

Hulu thinks they have a solution for you, and they are calling it Face Match. It allows viewers to instantly learn about the actors on their favorite TV shows and movies, by simply hovering over their faces with their mouse.

All you have to do is hover over that obscure actor’s face and Hulu will pause the video and bring up a box with the actor’s name and some information about them. Right now, the info is brief and links to a larger Wikipedia entry.

To use Face Match, select the config button in the lower right corner of the video player while watching any show or clip. If Hulu Face Match is available for the video you’re watching, there will be an option to turn the feature on. You can also modify your default setting for Hulu Face Match on your personal settings page.

Remember when using Face Match, it might not be perfect – it’s still in Hulu Labs.

Currently, the Hulu content that supports Face Match includes all episodes of Glee, The Office, Wilfred, Modern Family, and Lost.

Try it out below on this episode of Modern Family:

[Note: This writer would never refer to Terry O'Quinn as obscure. How could we ever forget his masterful work in The X-Files: Fight The Future]

An analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, Craig Moffett, was quoted in Bloomberg yesterday for predicting that at least one of the major cable operators, probably Comcast Communications or Time Warner Cable, will initiate a usage-based payment scale next year for Internet-loving customers. He anticipates the change in billing plans due to the growing number of Internet users watching more and more movies through services like Netflix and Hulu. As more cable subscribers cancel their service and defect to watching videos online, cable companies are looking for ways to minimize the attrition of customers. Through a usage-based service plan, all of those Netflix and Hulu flicks you’ve been watching online will start to be reflected in higher bills if you watch enough of them.

But don’t go updating your Netflix plan to resume receiving DVDs via mail just yet.

One, this pot has boiled once before. Time Warner had a go at testing “Consumer Based Billing” in 2009 but nixed the plan after the public made it patently clear that they disliked this idea. In their statement after the fall-out, Time Warner stated “that it is working to make measurement tools available as quickly as possible. These tools will help customers understand how much bandwidth they consume and aid in the dialog going forward.”

Yeah, because customers can’t wait to pay more to use the Internet just to find out how much bandwidth they consumed while plowing through the final three seasons of Lost.

Ultimately, it’s likely this strategy from the cable companies will be regarded as an attempt to wrest back their subscribers that have migrated to the Internet in search of their viewing pleasures. In an editorial he wrote for the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, Netflix General Counsel David Hyman said changing to usage-based billing services “is bad news for consumers and threatens to slow down the innovation powering today’s Internet economy.” Added to that, consumers have grown accustomed to free Internet since… well, since the Internet. An effort from cable companies to apply a limit on how much customers can use the Internet based on how much they pay – even if those customers could technically afford it – is likely to go over about as well as the last time a company tried this.

Despite the gloomy prediction that our land of Internet-y milk and honey may soon come to an end, the Bloomberg piece did conclude with a spell of optimism:

Cable’s best option is to find ways to profit from the online shift, said Moffett. If the companies were to lose all of their video customers, the revenue decline would be more than offset by a lower programming fees and set-top box spending, he said.

“In the end, it will be the best thing that ever happened to the cable industry,” Moffett said.

So tell us: would you be willing to pay for your Internet use based on your amount of usage?