In a blog post, Forssell says that Hulu set a new record for revenue in Q1, and that for the first time ever, Hulu users streamed over 1 billion videos in a single quarter. Coming of a year when subscription to Hulu Plus doubled, Forssell says that Hulu’s premium service topped 4 million subscribers in Q1.

Forsell also has this to say about where Hulu users are streaming content:

“Mobile viewing is growing at a significant rate and will account for approximately 15% of Hulu’s consumed videos in 2013-2014. For context, mobile viewing was nonexistent on our service only two years ago. Living room viewing is also growing; it currently accounts for 29% of Hulu’s content consumption, and 80% of Hulu Plus subscribers have watched with someone else.”

With stats out of the way, Forssell went on to announce two new Hulu original series, Quick Draw and East Los High. The former is “a comedic half-hour western set in 1875 that centers on a Harvard-educated sheriff and his quest to introduce the emerging science of forensics to an unruly Kansas town,” while the latter is an all-Latino cast English language drama set in an inner city high school.

These new series joins nearly a dozen Hulu exclusive series heading to the service this summer. Also, Hulu just launched new seasons of All My Children and One Life to Live.

Of course, much of this patting itself on the pack is a direct pitch to advertisers. Mainly, “Look! We have 4 million Hulu Plus subscribers who are paying to see your ads!”

“Our advertising mission is to be the world’s most effective video advertising service, and we are well on our way. According to comScore, Hulu is #1 in engagement among top ad supported sites. Hulu viewers stay with us for 45 minutes per session—without fast-forwarding or skipping ads. Hulu is also #1 in market share of all premium online video providers, delivering 1 in 3 of all premium video ads in the U.S. Our reasonable ad load drives the highest recall and awareness for brands, which results in higher effectiveness for the video ads,” says Forssell.

But it’s a strong pitch, especially for a company that is in a highly-competitive industry. The streaming video sector is booming, and Hulu is staying above the fray and setting records.

Just a few months ago, we got word that the two programs were being resurrected and would later launch on Hulu and iTunes. Today, Hulu has made it official.

“We’re thrilled and honored to carry on the tradition with the return of beloved soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” with new episodes on Hulu and Hulu Plus starting today,” says Martin Moakler, Hulu’s Social Community Manager.

“I know it was a long wait,” says Cady McClain, who plays Dixie Cooney Martin on the show.. “I know there have been a lot of ups and downs. I just want to assure the fans that it feels like another era of golden years for this show. It’s truly the best that ‘All My Children’ is and can be again.”

“I’m very excited and feel super lucky to be here right now,” she says. “The story and sets are incredible. There are so many surprises coming. I can’t wait to watch it myself!”

Hulu knows that some of the soap opera crowd may not be totally familiar with Hulu, or online streaming in general. So they made this video full of soap stars to educate the uninitiated:

You can watch All my Children here and One Life to Live here. Are you excited to have these two classic soaps back?

Hulu announced today it has acquired all the classic TV shows within TV shows that you love. It all starts with a celebration of the 85th anniversary of The Itchy and Scratchy Show. Hulu says that it has acquired almost all 63,764 episodes of the long running TV show, with only seven episodes being banned for “nonviolence, understanding, and helping.

The other shows coming to Hulu include Inspector Spacetime, MILF Island, Mock Trial with J. Reinhold, Ya Heard? with Perd, Queen of Jordan, Space Teens, and Numberwang.

Hulu isn’t just adding notable TV shows to its lineup today as it has also acquired the classic direct-to-TV film – The Rural Juror. The film, starring Jenna Maroney, is a seven-hour epic that rivals any John Grisham novel adaptation.

All of this is Hulu’s April Fools’ Day prank, but the site really is hosting most of this content today. Now’s your chance to watch all the best episodes of Itchy and Scratchy if you find yourself missing one of the greatest TV shows within a TV show ever made.

This includes Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Star Trek: Voyager.

In all, this is 693 episodes. And you have just under 10 days to catch them while they’re still free.

You do the math.

“Resistance is futile. Almost as futile as controlling a population of tribbles,” says Hulu.

The last limited time deal that Hulu ran was a little more up my alley. On Valentine’s weekend, Hulu opened up over 800 Criterion Collection films for free.

To get started on all 693 episodes, head here.

“Right away, you’ll notice we’ve added content categories across the top navigation bar to make it easy to for you to jump to your chosen section – whether it is TV, Kids, Latino, Search, or something else. Inside each category, you’ll discover what’s new in our content library so it’s easy to discover new shows and keep up with the shows you already love. You can also jump into your favorite shows right away with the “Shows You Watch” tray. We built this to make sure you never miss a new episode or lose your place in a series,” says Hulu’s Dave Herman.

The UI update also makes playback and viewing simpler. When you find the show you want to watch, all you have to do is press the play button and it will start playing instantly.

Hulu has also added support for a quick on/off trigger for audio/subtitle options. When you’re watching something, all you have to do is press and hold the select button.

To experience the new UI, you have to be up to date on your firmware. Make sure to update your software in your settings if you don’t see the changes.

In other, probably more significant Hulu news, the company just named former SVP of Content Andy Forssell as the acting CEO, replacing Jason Kilar as he departs at the end of Q1.

According to Kilar, Andy Forssell will be tapped as acting CEO when he steps down at the end of March.

Forssell is currently the Senior Vice President of Content at the company who signed on in 2007.

“In his time at Hulu, Andy has accelerated the growth of the content business from just two content providers in 2007 to more than 410 today, and has led the expansion into original programming. Andy brought to Hulu more than a decade of experience at Siebel Systems and Oracle Corporation where he served in a number of leadership roles including product development, customer care, datacenter operations and supplier management for their hosted CRM software-as-a-service businesses,” says Hulu’s about page.

Kilar sent this letter to the Hulu team, and it’s been cross-posted to the Hulu blog:

Team -

As you all know, I will be departing Hulu at the end of this quarter. I wanted to share the news that Andy Forssell will be stepping up to lead Hulu as acting CEO after I depart later this month. You know Andy well; he’s been a critical senior executive and has been here from the start of this great adventure. Andy exemplifies the Hulu culture and has been central to Hulu’s journey, helping to grow this company from 2 content partners and no revenue to over 450 content partners and approximately $700 million revenue in 2012. In his role, Andy has built strong relationships with many of our Board members. Andy has the Board’s strong support in leading the team during this important time.

Disney and News Corporation are currently finalizing their forward-looking plans with Hulu, and the senior team has been working closely with them in that process. Once the plans are finalized, a permanent decision will be made regarding the CEO position.

As I mentioned to you all at the beginning of this year, Hulu’s focus remains on delivering a fantastic 2013 for customers and shareholders. Hulu is well on its way, with new records being set in Q1 across both revenue and subscriber additions. The unwavering focus on delighting Hulu’s customers is clearly showing up in the outputs of the business.

Jason

Starting today and continuing through the weekend, all Criterion films on Hulu will be free to all – even those who are not subscribed to Hulu Plus.

Normally, Criterion films are only able to be streamed by Hulu Plus members. In that case, they’re ad-free. In this free-stream weekend, you’ll have to put up with a few ads throughout the film. But it’s a fairly small price to pay to have access to nearly a thousand classic films.

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The Criterion Collection first appeared on Hulu back in February 2011. As of today, there are over 800 different films to stream from Criterion on Hulu, making it one of the most-impressive collection of classic and often hard-to-find films around.

You can start browsing Criterion films on Hulu here.

Amazon has just announced a deal with PBS Distribution that will make Prime Instant Video the only place that Downton Fans will be able to stream the show.

Eventually. Amazon will have exclusive rights to Downton Abbey Season 3 (currently airing) on June 18th, and will gain exclusive rights to the other two seasons “later this year.” No specifics on the actual date that you’ll see Downton disappear from Netflix and Hulu.

Not only that, but Amazon is keeping Downton out of the hands of Netflix and Hulu for the foreseeable future. Prime Instant Video will continue to be the exclusive subscription home of season 4 and season 5, if that actually becomes a thing.

“Our Prime customers have spoken—they can’t get enough of the MASTERPIECE CLASSIC series ‘Downton Abbey.’ The series is consistently in our top most watched TV shows each week, making it the most popular TV series with Prime Instant Video customers, ever,” said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon. “Prime Instant Video will soon be the exclusive subscription video streaming home for ‘Downton Abbey.’”

This is a big move by Amazon to secure the rights to an extremely popular show. Locking up exclusive rights to Downton Abbey’s past, present, and future is a pretty good wallop to other streaming services – a scheme that Thomas could surely approve of.

If daytime TV viewers didn’t want All My Children and One Life To Live, you could have fooled me, because when the news broke, the angry comments flooded the web.

Angry fans can find joy once again, because both shows are making a return, courtesy of Hulu. We have yet to see an official announcement, but TechCrunch is reporting that both will be back in shorter 30-minute episodes each weekday, starting in the spring on Hulu, as well as on iTunes and Prospect Park’s (the production company that licensed the soap operas from ABC) The Online Network, but Hulu will manage the ad sales and package them.

Prospect Park actually announced the shows’ return earlier this month, but didn’t mention Hulu or iTunes (via zap2it):

“We are pleased to confirm that Prospect Park is reviving the beloved soap operas, All My Children and One Life To Live as the anchor programs on The Online Network (TOLN). Today we are also pleased to confirm that Prospect Park has: 1) signed guild agreements with both SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and the DGA (Directors Guild of America); 2) entered into a consulting agreement with Agnes Nixon the creator of All My Children and One Life to Live guaranteeing her active involvement; 3) hired Foz McDermott (coordinating producer Heroes) as TOLN’s head of production, Jennifer Pepperman (Director, One Life to Live) as Executive Producer on One Life to Live, and Ginger Smith (Producer, All My Children) as Executive Producer on All My Children; and 4) arranged the necessary financing to begin production in February on both All My Children and One Life To Live.

Online video has become quite the savior for fans of canceled TV shows, showing that if there is big enough demand, your old favorites might have a chance at returning. Netflix has managed to pull off what many of us thought would never happen, in bringing back the cult favorite Arrested Development, which returns in May. Now, long-running soap operas are finding their way back to fans in what should be a happy moment for a lot of people.

Today, they’ve launched the site for Super Bowl 2013.

As the game airs, ads will appear on AdZone in real time.

“Watch, share and vote for your favorite Super Bowl ads during the big game. As soon as one team takes home the title of Super Bowl champion on Sunday, Feb. 3, we’ll tally the votes and announce your pick for the best ads of Super Bowl 2013 and share our picks for best celebrity cameos, cutest critters and more,” says Hulu.

Hulu has also optimized their AdZone for mobile:

“And if you’re craving another wing or grabbing a cold one during the commercial break and miss that ad that will have everyone talking, have no fear – with the Hulu AdZone mobile experience you can visit hulu.com/adzone from your mobile device to pull up that ad and watch, vote, share, Tweet and “like” it to your heart’s content (you’ll just need a Facebook account to cast your vote),” says Hulu.

You can check out AdZone right now, even before the Super Bowl. There, you can relive all of last year’s advertisements, as well as browse through the best ads from 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Here’s what was voted as last year’s best Super Bowl ad: