The recent success and immense popularity (not to mention revenue) of broadcast TV site Hulu.com, which allows users to seamlessly stream TV’s most popular shows and video clips, has brought about challenging questions to the current king of internet media, Youtube. At the end of the day, which is better? Which will prove to be a more lucrative space? Ultimately, which will users prefer as their online entertainment venue of choice?

Web TV promises a unique view, generated by hundreds of thousands of unique espisodic content created and promoted by everyday amateurs. Internet TV shows have proven to be popular in many spaces, but not necessarily immensely profitable. It’s also a lot easier or produce, costing a little more than nothing to create and launch a show online, or even record something funny and throw it up on Youtube for all to see.

Yet Hulu has it’s own set of advantages. It allows us to watch our favorite shows without worrying about plopping ourselves in front of the TV at a particular time slot. There’s been a lot more demand for quality broadcast shows, these days, given that the economy has taken a  serious turn for the worse and consumers are seeking an inexpensive way to increase the harsher realities of tighter budgets and increased job loss.

So which wins, per se? If money is any indication, Hulu is rapidly gaining speed over Youtube in the realm of revenue. It’s shown immense profitability despite being much younger and having a lot less traffic than it’s behemoth rival. There’s no question that advertisers seek traffic that converts into saels, and broadcast sites like Hulu may be able to offer that solution more efficiently and quickly than Youtube and other user-generated sites can. Time will tell.