Is Hulu hunkering down?
So, early in the day comes word that Hulu has pulled its content from TV.com, and will say only that it’s “exercising” its contractual rights with the site. Then, Boxee reports that Hulu is pulling out of that service as well, this time because Hulu’s content partners have asked it to.
Meanwhile, AdAge has an interesting report suggesting that Hulu’s exclusive content deals with Fox and NBC–which are pretty much the deals that keep the site alive–may be expiring as soon as March. So, what’s going on? It seems there are still some Hulu deals happening, but are Fox and NBC pressuring Hulu to keep the traffic flowing to just one place as part of further contract negotiations? Certainly Fox is jerking Hulu around big-time with respect to 24, and has always kept would-be viewers on their toes with appearing and disappearing show episodes.
It does seem like the other shoe is dropping in Hulu-land: they’ve got to start maximizing streams and ad revenue if they’re going to survive the potential loss of Fox and NBC deals, and they’ve got to do whatever Fox and NBC say if they’re going to keep those deals. And ultimately, that means annoying you and I. In fact, Hulu knows we’re annoyed, and have said their content partners asked them to turn off the pipes. But it’s bad timing, as Netflix sets such a good example by delivering content to pretty much any platform, anytime. It might just be time for Hulu to man up and tell Fox and NBC that eating their young in these troubled times isn’t a very good long-term strategy, you know?
This is kind of sad. The Hulu app on Boxee is a freaking web browser for cryin out loud. Is Playon next? That software transcodes the Hulu stream after all.
Despite paying for Netflix I use Hulu almost exclusively to watch streaming tv. It would be a shame if they were to start losing content or even worse go away altogether.
Hulu just pisses me off anyway – I’m angry that I bothered putting Boxee on my AppleTV, but the thing is so iffy on anything. It could’ve been EXACTLY what I wanted but it never REALLY got there and now they’ve shown that they’re just as stupid as every other entertainment industry organization. Good riddance – give me more Dr. Horrible, podcasts, etc.
Hulu is still giving me the daily show, which I’m pleased about. However, it’s pretty obvious that advertisement isn’t all they’d hope it could be with somewhere between 50 and 75% of the ads being public service announcements.
I think this is a real trouble spot for these companies — they have to figure out a way to make money off of these shows online somehow, but in a way that doesn’t annoy or frustrate users enough that they’ll just go to pirate bay.
I don’t mind watching adverts on Hulu. What does bother me is not ever knowing if a complete season can be watched. I don’t watch shows as often as I used to because the take episodes way to quickly.
Hulu is now in a running battle with Boxee and have disabled DivX connected as well. I assume that PlayOn will be next. Odd that the PS3 is getting new content deals at the same time. Not thru Hulu of course. But given how few people have PS3′s that isn’t really helping…
I’ve given up on Hulu. It doesn’t generally work in Hotels with their lower bandwidth given that they won’t let you buffer. I’ve used stream ripping software to work around this (meaning no ads), but its too much trouble. I’ve picked up a Slingbox now and I can just watch what I’ve recorded at home. And it works on a low bandwidth link too.
I’m happy to see the TV.com app on the iPhone. Maybe CBS can try the “tech friendly” angle, and we’ll see which approach works out better for the network.