Hulu.com

More than two months after the online video service Hulu first announced a relationship with ABC-TV and said it would begin featuring content from the network, it has made its first shows available.

Six shows from season five of Grey's Anatomy have been added on Hulu.com and another 35 Web sites that offer the service. Two shows are from the season opener, two from the middle of the season, and the two shows leading up to the finale.

The evolution of video on the Web from a curious experiment to a cornucopia of channels took another step Thursday as Hulu.com released a beta of a downloadable application that allows viewing its collection from the desktop.

Eric Feng, Hulu CTO, wrote on the company blog that Hulu Desktop enables users to "find and enjoy your favorite Hulu videos in a rich, full-screen computer window that you can control with your mouse or keyboard or any six-button PC or Mac remote control."

'Step Outside' of Browser

YouTube, the biggest online video Web site, has been missing much of the action as studios move full-length TV shows and movies to the Web. But this may be changing: YouTube announced Monday that movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) will show some of its archive on the popular video site.

The fare will be free for viewers, accompanied by ads. Initial titles from MGM include episodes of the American Gladiators TV series, full-length films such as Bulletproof Monk and The Magnificent Seven, and clips from movies like Legally Blonde.

Rolling Out Content Slowly

ABC has a new Webcast deal, this time with Internet television service Veoh. Under the arrangement, full-length episodes of Desperate Housewives, Lost and Ugly Betty will be available on Veoh's Web site. The deal is only the second time ABC has licensed content to an independent vendor.

Other networks, notably NBC, have moved much more aggressively into the strange new land in which networks produce content for broadcast, then license other sites to replay it. NBC and Fox joined forces last year to create Hulu.com, a portal for the networks' content.