ShortForm adds videos from Hulu, CollegeHumor

Video curation platform ShortForm is giving its video jockeys (VJs) new content to choose from, with clips from premium video sources like Hulu and CollegeHumor now available on its platform. The addition will allow its VJs to build playlists that now incorporate broadcast TV content and comedy clips, which play seamlessly when a user tries to access them.

ShortForm VJs will now be able to choose videos from the entire library of Hulu and CollegeHumor content, in addition to existing content from YouTube and Vimeo. They can create RSS feeds that will alert them of new content that is added to the site, and can drag and drop videos from those sources directly into any new playlists they build.

ShortForm embeds Hulu and CollegeHumor video players into its playlists, keeping all of the ads that run against the videos and allowing its partners to monetize their content. But despite the different players, videos play seamlessly next to each other in VJ playlists, creating a continuous stream of content. Viewers can then share those videos through social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

ShortForm CEO Nader Ghaffari told us in a phone interview that the deals are an extension of the startup’s plan to add as many content sources as possible to its platform. “We want to sit on top of all the places videos exist,” Ghaffari said. “We’ll try to integrate with every source our VJs want.

The deals come as both Hulu and CollegeHumor make their videos more accessible to third parties, especially startups. Both recently partnered with social video discovery startup Shelby.tv, which allows viewers to see videos that their friends have shared or linked to on networks like Facebook and Twitter. And Hulu has expanded its network through deals to embed its videos on Frontier Communications’ TumTiki and Yahoo’s Screen video portals.

Partnering with platforms like ShortForm is one way that even premium content sources like Hulu and CollegeHumor can build greater awareness for their programming. While many other video discovery platforms today — such as Shelby.tv, VHX.tv and Showyou — rely on what contacts on social networks have shared to surface videos, Ghaffari argues that there’s value in the type of human, editorial curation that happens through the ShortForm platform. “Channels perform best when people are telling their own stories,” he believes.

Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/shortform-hulu-collegehumor/