Hulu welcomed the new year by providing its blog readers with some of its online video stats from 2009. It’s a good read for Hulu trackers, with lots of wowie-zowie numbers to crunch.

We’re a bit burned out on numbers just now. Here are some programming highlights.

• The most popular shows on Hulu were “Saturday Night Live,” “Family Guy,” “The Office,” “The Simpsons” and “Naruto Shippuden.” (WTF is “Naruto Shippuden” you ask?)
• The clip with the most views was “Motherlove” from “SNL” — another howler from the “Dick in the Box” guys. (Guest stars MILF immortals Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson)
• The No. 1 full episode was “Stew-Roids” from Fox’s “Family Guy.”
• The live video stream of President Obama’s Inauguration was voted in as the most embedded chunk of video.

The Wall Street Journal web site broke the news that Google’s amateur video giant has been in talks with Sony, Warner Bros., MGM and Lionsgate for full-length Hollywood fare.

At least some of the video rentals would be day and date with DVDs and Blu-rays’ arrival at Blockbuster and other traditional outlets, several sources said.

YouTube has been pushing the studios for a free, ad-driven model, but Hollywood seeks rental fees such as those on Amazon’s Video On Demand service and the iTunes Store. The studios apparently remain resistant to closing the online release window to match DVD availability.

YouTube recently created a “Shows” section for professional video, embraced widescreen ratios and is offering what passes for HD on the Internet. The Google property also made first-step deals for clips and trailers from DIsney/ABC and Time Warner.

YouTube said in a statement: “While we don’t comment on rumor and speculation, we hope to expand both on our great relationships with movie studios and on the selection and types of videos we offer our community.”

Google’s video sites (YouTube, basically) streamed 8.9 million files in July, accounting for 42 percent of all videos viewed online, according to comScore.

Best to catch this “stunning visual portrayal of Earth” on the biggest screen you can find, but there’s a quick, easy and free way to see the film as June 5 dawns.

YouTube is set for a one-day-only streaming of “Home,” which was directed by French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. (Update: The movie started streaming on schedule. YouTube’s presentation is in widescreen with the viewer option for what it calls HD.)

The production claims the title of first simultaneous online and offline premiere for a major film. The 90-minute feature is narrated by Glenn Close.

The ambitious and well-executed YouTube channel for “Home” includes the making-of extras we’ll probably see on the Blu-ray and DVD, as well as short videos about shooting locations. There’s also a stash of press conference videos. Google France worked with the producers to create five map “layers” with interactive and dynamic content.

The film is available in English, French, German and Spanish. Some international viewers are reporting messages that the stream is not available in their countries.

Director Arthus-Bertrand’s eco-friendly canned quote says, “The message in this film is incredibly important since it underscores the question of survival. It needs powerful and accessible platforms like YouTube and Google Maps to reach the largest audience.” Besson, of course, is known for visually driven movies such as “The Big Blue” and “The Fifth Element.”

“Home” also will screen in outdoor settings around the planet, such as Central Park, and on some TV networks.

Previous filmmakers debuting their works online include Michael Moore (“Sicko” on BlipTV) and Wayne Wang (“The Princess of Nebraska” on YouTube).

Noting that “you get paid on measurement,” Philippe Dauman charged that streaming-video tracking done by online ratings services are “extremely inaccurate.”

“What we see internally is very different than what the measuring services have,” Dauman said, making the same points as Hulu executives did in their leaked complaint email to Nielsen. Viacom also uses Nielsen for its streaming video properties, such as fare from Paramount, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV.

Dauman made the comments during his Q&A session Wednesday at the Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference. The majority of the talk focusing on streaming video, to no one’s surprise.

Dauman, among the most savvy of the old-media chieftains when it comes to online video, is on board when it comes to the multiplatform digital universe, at least in theory:

“We’re agnostic about how people view our content as long as we get paid for it,” he said, envisioning a time when TV and video releases were day-and-date across all platforms.

“Consumers certainly want to have access to content on different devices,” Dauman said. “We have to adapt to that world.

“We on the content side have to work with the distribution community to make that happen (but) it’s not going to happen overnight. … It’s not a lightswitch moment.”

Far from hurting broadcast television, he said, online appears to be strengthening it.

“When we have a hit, our online presence actually builds the show. It draws in fans, it gets them more committed to the show. It increases the intensity of the relationship. And, importantly, we can monetize our video and online presence very well.

“We are getting more viewers than we ever had on our shows. When we get strong ratings … we get a tremendous number of views online. … Our programming skews very highly, both online and VOD.

“As we go forward, we’ll be able to modify that better (with new ad models).”

He said establishing appropriate price points for ads and premium online video fare was especially difficult now because skewing from the sick economy.

Keeping network affiliates happy and in the loop is an important part of online development, Dauman said. “We manage content so it’s not cannibalistic. We’re very conscious of this because of our affiliate relationships. Broadcasters until now have not had to be very conscious of (online).

“We’re very careful how we window our product.” He said a “very robust” premium product for distributors and customers was doing well in beta.

On the seamy side of video downloads, he noted that “peer-to-peer networks are still a problem. The studios have to be vigilant.”

Dauman cited the pirated version of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” that appeared online before the film’s debut. (And, incredibly, was the source for a gushing review by a Fox TV movie critic, now an ex-Fox TV movie critic.)

Viacom is working closely with online distributors, he said, because the practice of P2P piracy “is a bandwidth hog.”

Overseas, he said, countries with local film industries tended to be good allies in the piracy fight — such as India, France and Sweden. “Piracy has always been an issue in our business.”

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Of course, Sony won’t be giving up its latest boxoffice hits. The studio’s film showcase crackle.com serves up fare such as “Groundhog Day,” “Shakes the Clown” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.” While we wouldn’t mind revisiting “Shakes” or “Neighbors,” there’s little but moldy catalog stuff on the Sony site. That’s what would come to YouTube, probably in limited numbers and perhaps unspooled on a branded Sony player.

Still, this seems reason enough for YouTube to get excited. The user-posted-video site, which spent years alienating Hollywood’s suits, is finding it tough getting anything of value out of would-be premium partners such as Sony. YouTube’s upcoming redesign prominently features movie and TV content.

YouTube hasn’t been able to monetize its endless user-generated content — beloved by the public but considered trash by the ad buyers — and is desperate to do something about its money-losing ways. Credit Suisse analysts just projected an annual YouTube loss of $470 million.

The Disney movie and TV service would work on a subscription model.

Iger has become more pessimistic about DVDs in past months, citing the popularity of online video. “We’re trying to find ways to make it work for us and not fight it,” Iger told the Media and Communications Conference in Palm Beach, Fla. “From our perspective, the computer is a very, very important place to entertain people.”

He cited a poll that showed more than 80 percent of viewers between the ages of 13 and 24 consider a computer their primary entertainment source, with TV running second. The erosion of traditional electronic media shows no sign of slowing — Iger gets that.

Another good reason to go with an online service for kids: The new generation of parents are increasingly consuming entertainment from their computers and will be comfortable paying for streaming Disney product.

Disney has been busily hedging its bets in the home video arena. It has been selling titles with both DVD and Blu-ray versions in the box, assuring buyers that their movie won’t become obsolete.

In February, Iger announced that Disney would reduce the number of DVDs and Blu-rays it releases. “When the economy rebounds, the normal we see (in the DVD business) is not necessarily going to be the normal we were used to.”

Also on the conference beat, Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy on Wednesday watered down his recent suggestions that the mail-rental giant was about to offer an online-only subscription option for its Watch Instantly service. He cited lack of market penetration for WI-ready devices such as the Roku box.

So says a top Lehman Brothers analyst, whose downgrade of the entertainment sector from “neutral” to “negtive” roiled major Hollywood stocks early this week — even though all of this gloom has long been factored in to media stock prices.

“Owning a collection of movies in this new digital world is really just not that cool for young adults in the target demographic that we look to for the future of the business,” Anthony DiClemente proclaimed during a conference call.

Then he let loose the dreaded words: “Content may no longer be king in the entertainment business.”

DiClemente trotted out the usual suspects: digital distribution via outlets like the iTunes Store and Amazon’s Unbox, illegal movie downloads, ad-killing DVRs, the overall downtrend in the aging DVD format.

He downgraded 20th Century Fox, News Corp., Time Warner, CBS and the Walt Disney Corp., media giants he said were particularly vulnerable to digital disruptions. Paramount took less of a hit.

News Corp., for example, saw the target price for its stock fall from $25 to $15 a share in Lehman’s eyes. Time Warner’s slid from $20 to $14.

“The structural shift created by ubiquitous technological change — a shift that has materially impacted the music industry — could also disrupt the core economic models of the film and television studios,” DiClemente said.

Most of the stocks DiClemente cited failed to participate in Tuesday’s broad stock rally, but their losses from Monday’s bashing seem over.The Lehman report saw a lot of press because of its doom-and-gloom headlines, but anyone with an active interest in this topic knows there’s nothing new there. Almost all of the analysts rounded up for comment blew off DiClemente’s report.

DiClemente, of course, had to justify his sector downgrade, so don’t blame him for stating the obvious.

He did make a point we don’t hear often enough. The era of owning an artifact — an album, CD or DVD — in order to enjoy entertainment is coming to a close. The forward-looking musician Todd Rundgren was making this point 15 years ago, but no one was listening.

Most of us have heard of kids who buy CDs, download the music, and then throw away the disc before someone cool sees them with the dumb thing.

The Hollywood stock slide in my opinion doesn’t present a buying opportunity (outside of overall market cheapness). I don’t own media stocks (aside from some GE stock I’m looking to dump) — and that’s from someone who’s worked in media most of his life.

“Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy” will be carried on the “Ads By Google” advertising network, fed directly to web sites where “Family Guy” guys and gals are likely to hang out.

The New York Times broke the story early this morning in a story titled “Google and Creator of ‘Family Guy’ Strike a Deal.”

Monetization will come via the online video quasi-standard methods: Either as a preroll clip or as banner images below the streaming video.

MacFarlane created new characters for the strips, which will go out as 50 two-minute episodes. He told the Times they would be “animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier.”

Google has dubbed the syndication method “the Google Content Network.”

“We feel that we have recreated the mass media,” said a modest Kim Malone Scott of the AdSense unit.

Those Google AdSense slots appear to be good for something other than annoying you and maybe making a nickel or two for publishers like me (call it AdCents).

The movie downloads on the iTunes Store are flowing from Disney, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as the major indies Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.

The move already is paying off: Six of the top 10 iTunes movie sellers as of today were released to DVD within the past couple of weeks, led by “Cloverfield” (April 22). None of these titles were available for iTunes rental.

Only a couple of this week’s DVD releases are up there, but chick-flickers can score “27 Dresses” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” All of these films are available for download on Amazon’s Unbox.

The lag time for movie downloads has made this business look kind of goofy, with digital product running a couple of months behind the home video window. So count this as a major victory for Steve Jobs’ bid to make the iTunes Store a dominant player in movie downloads.

This delay time is critical to film studio economics. The studios, movie exhibitors and the home video distributors and retailers have been fussing over the release window since the first Betamax hit the shelves. The window (delay) continues to close, to cinema owners’ dismay.

Apple’s press corp is struggling with the day-and-date concept.

The iTunes press release states: “New releases available for purchase on the iTunes Store this week, concurrent with their DVD release, include “American Gangster” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Sounds good, except “American Gangster” came out on DVD months ago. And, ironically, “Gangster” was a victim of big-time BitTorrent downloading shortly after the theatrical film came out.

iTunes also is selling “Juno,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”

The big news came out on the fifth anniversary of the iTunes Store, a massive world-changing success in the music business.Netflix stock, trying to recover from a quarterly earnings warning that sent it down 24%, took another hit with today’s news of the iTunes movie download deal. On a terrific day for the market, NFLX took a 3% hit. AAPL was up almost 3.5%. (Disclaimer: I own Apple and bought Netflix on the big dip.)

Plop in the disc, hit a prompt or two and you’ve got a copy of “Juno” ready for iPod or iTunes viewing. That was almost as easy as getting pregnant when you’re young, in lust and not even close to married.

The Hollywood studios are slow but not dumb. They finally figured out that tech-savvy users are going to get copies of hit movies onto their PCs and portables whether the copyright cops like it or not. Until the new year, that often meant grabbing an illicit version via BitTorrents or hacking the copyright protection on the DVD.

Starting with Fox’s release of “Blue Harvest” — the “Family Guy” spoof of “Star Wars” — the studios started trickling out digital copies of movies packaged with the standard DVD. The pace appears to be quickening.

In the case of this week’s DVD release of “Juno,”users pay a $7 premium for the extra disc that contains a downloadable file. The download video disc also comes with the Blu-ray of “Juno,” for doubled-up early adopters.

Getting “Juno” onto my Pro Mac (Intel) with iTunes v. 7.6.2 took all of three minutes. The disc started up with a mighty whirling. A popup asked if I wanted to add the movie to iTunes. Sure. Another screen assured me a download was under way.

The movie appeared to download in about a minute, but there was no clear indication that had happened, other than a thumbnail image of the DVD cover that appeared under the Movies tab in the main Library. Double-clicked and the system asked if I wanted to authorize this computer to store the movie. Yep. Then it indicated two of five computer slots for the film had been used (presumably one for the desktop and another for the plugged in iPod).

“Juno” started up with with that familiar Fox studio drum intro … and pretty much looked like crap. That was at the full-screen setting for the monitor. Moved back about 5 feet and everything looked good enough for a full-length viewing, with allowances for softness and grain. The audio was clear and crisp, but nothing special, of course.

The smaller the screen space, the better it looked — as is the case with all computer video. So iPods have it easy in coming up with a sharp image.

The experience for Mac users should prove almost identical to renting or buying a movie off the iTunes Store — meaning hassle-free.

No doubt studios will use digital copies as marketing incentives. Sony’s upcoming DVD of Dolph Lundgren’s “Diamond Dogs,” for instances, has a digital copy as a “bonus copy,” but it wouldn’t work on the Mac. The sleeve says “Diamond Dogs” will work either as a PC or PSP transfer. At least it’s free. Get what you pay for dept.