News Corp and NBC Universal name video site Hulu

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp. and NBC Universal said on Wednesday they have named their new online video joint venture Hulu, taking a page from the Internet company tradition of creating meaningless corporate monikers.

The two media companies said the site will be available for testing by a "limited" number of users by October -- a month later than originally planned.

"We just wanted a name that is short and easy to spell," Hulu spokeswoman Christina Lee said. "We like the idea that it rhymes with itself. We wanted a fun name."

The announcement ends a five-month search for the name of the joint venture aimed at competing with online video services such as Google Inc's YouTube. The company named Jason Kilar, a former Amazon.com executive, as its chief executive in July.

Hulu honors the tradition of naming Internet companies with catchy, but meaning-deprived terms that could some day define the category in which it operates. Google, Yahoo Inc., Skype, Lala.com and Joost fall under the same category.

Potential users will need to submit their e-mail address on hulu.com, which will determine who is allowed to test the service. This is a common practice among Internet companies when introducing new services.

NBC Universal is controlled by General Electric Co.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke and Kenneth Li)