Good shows, good picture quality, a price of "free" – it seems as if there’s little not to like about Hulu.  The video-sharing site has yet to truly catch on, however, as fresh traffic data puts it far, far below the industry’s leader.

Hulu and YouTube may not directly compete – good luck finding full episodes of anything on the latter – but they’re at least operating in the same ballpark.  So Hitwise’s Heather Hopkins reports, "Hulu is still in its infancy and last week, YouTube attracted nearly 300 times more traffic than Hulu.com."

 Compete’s Comparison Of Hulu And YouTube

Statistics from Compete make things look less disastrous for the newcomer, yet a huge gap remains.

It’s not time for NBC and Fox to give up on Hulu, though.  As the site adds movies and programs ("The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" joined in yesterday), more and more pre-existing fans of that content are likely to check it out.  Besides, there’s a necessary period of audience-building for every new site, regardless of what it offers.

We’ll try to see where Hulu stands when it’s had a full six or twelve months to establish a following.