If I Can Dream is probably the biggest Internet/social media/network-style crossover programming we’ve seen so far. The show’s premier on Hulu (see above) doesn’t do it justice, but this summary on Mashable offers a fine explanation of how the episodic nature of the show will integrate with social media beyond Hulu.

So Mashable pretty much covers the bases on the cross-platform brilliance of this show, but I’m asking why Hulu even did this in the first place? Here’s one possible reason, and I’m sure it’s one of many.

Hulu has to license all its content from the networks, studios and other copyright holders with whom it partners. This can get expensive. And it’s risky if the content providers start pulling hot titles off Hulu. By co-creating and hosting its own content, Hulu saves licensing fees and, more important, controls its own destiny by maintaining exclusive access to a premium show. And I can only imagine that this also lets Hulu keeps a larger share of ad revenue generated against the videos on its site. This is particularly important because CPMs on online video are already too high and facing downward pressures, and Hulu’s rates in particular are perceived as inflated. At least if ad rates are dropping, Hulu can try to soothe the pain by reducing its payout to the networks.

From Mashable:

“The show’s tagline is ‘Welcome to the New Hollywood.’ That refers to the show’s premise — it’s about a group of young artists seeking to become the next big stars in Los Angeles — but it’s also easy to read as a mission statement for the show’s presentation and model.

The house that the five cast members will live in is equipped with 50 cameras that will live stream to the web for free 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s accessible at ificandream.com, and it’s accompanied by a ticker at the bottom of the site that announces when and where interesting events will be happening along with the current weather and time in LA where the house is located.

The cast’s Twitter , Facebook and MySpace accounts are linked and chock full of content. The music they’re (supposedly) listening to will stream on iheart radio. Short clips will be posted on Hulu every day.

In an interview at the Hulu blog, executive producer Michael Herwick summarized the project this way:

It’s about creating sort of a 21st century platform for legitimate, up-and-coming talent. It’s such a broader form of entertainment, where you have the 24-hour live streams, you have the weekly episodes on Hulu, and you have all this video-on-demand content. It’s very interactive and it’s very much in tune with what young people are doing these days. They digest the internet, they’re socially interactive, and they’re shooting their own videos on YouTube and getting discovered. We’re just saying that’s where it’s at right now, and we’re creating a project around that.”