When you find back-to-back Hulu and Verizon Hub commercials rolling across your TV screen, (as I recently did in New York), you know for traditional media delivery, the times, they are a-changin’.

Turns out, the TV spot for Hulu and Verizon Hub each mark a first for their respective parent company; pitching products previously not marketed on live television.

On background: Online video portal Hulu owes its success largely from its ability to offer online copies of already popular television series courtesy of its backers, NBC and FOX.

To that end, in many ways Hulu extends old (TV) media to the new screen, something that still meets mixed feelings at least among the “old guard” of television executives fearing further disintermediation.

Over at Verizon Wireless, The Hub is among the first so-called media phones; a new broadband-connected telephone terminal, with touch screen and rich media capabilities baked right into the device.

At least in part born out of the company’s previous unified communication efforts (anyone remember iobi?), The Hub represents the next big thing in the evolution of fixed / mobile communication devices, all while its designed to fight ongoing line losses to mobile substitution, Internet telephony, and email communications.

Clearly both Hulu and The Hub spell decided change to the decade-old business models their respective parent companies still represent. Both break the mold for a new generation of services, away from the product strategies (and underlying business models) of the past.

So what is it that warrants this new commitment to spending traditional media dollars for such new and disintermediating offerings?

While the parent companies to these rather disruptive services in the past rarely authorized enough new media marketing budget to pay for much of anything (let alone prime time spots), it appears, the tide might just be changing.

Speaking of Hulu, for more on the innovative Web TV platform and its future, be sure to check Brian’s post.