Say goodby to Hulu

[RandomGuy]

Most analysis says it is not looking good for one of my favorit websites...

Beware the Hulu hoodoo

Business and management
SchumpeterInternet companies
Beware the Hulu hoodoo
Jun 22nd 2011, 11:10 by J.B.

..FANS of "Glee", “Family Guy” and “Grey’s Anatomy” take note. Hulu, an American video-streaming website, has apparently been approached by a buyer, rumoured to be Yahoo! The prospect of a hot young video website being taken over by a grizzled dotcom veteran brings reminders of YouTube’s purchase by Google in 2006. YouTube has been something of a money pit for Google: it has yet to announce it has turned a profit. Hulu isn’t a money pit at all. It’s a snake pit.

Whereas anybody with a flip-cam can upload a video to YouTube, Hulu contains professional television shows. Three broadcast networks routinely feed it: ABC, Fox and NBC. Disney and News Corporation (representing ABC and Fox) are equity partners in Hulu, and sit on its board. NBC used to hold sway, too, but it was forced to step back when it was bought by Comcast, a large cable company.

Hulu’s website is terrific. Its shows are well-organised and start streaming instantly. There aren’t many advertisements, and the ones that run are costly: Hulu claims it costs more to reach a person on its website than on a broadcast television network. For $7.99 a month, American viewers can upgrade to Hulu Plus, which gets them a bigger archive, a handful of cable TV shows, and access on mobile devices.

Great stuff—unless you’re a media company. Having launched Hulu as a rival to YouTube and pirate networks, media executives have gradually soured on it. Programme-makers complain that putting shows on Hulu saps DVD sales. Some fear that viewers are becoming accustomed to light advertising loads. Others worry that Hulu is making it harder to sell repeats to cable networks. Most of all, they fret that the easy availability of shows online will encourage users to “cut the cord” and drop their cable TV subscriptions. Since Disney, News Corporation and Comcast all own extremely profitable cable channels, they aren’t keen on that.

It is getting worse. Following a terrifying slump in TV advertising during the recession, the broadcast networks have become eager to extort more money from the cable and satellite companies in the form of “retransmission fees” for their channels. Fights over these fees have become vicious, with occasional blackouts of shows. And the presence of Hulu isn’t helping at all. Faced with a demand for retransmission fees from ABC, Fox or NBC, a cable or satellite operator can point out that the broadcasters already give their shows away online. Why should they pay?

Tensions between Hulu and the media companies that feed it have become obvious in the past few months. They unlikely to ease soon. If Yahoo! buys Hulu it will be plunged into a nasty, long-running fight between media companies and distributors—not the sort of thing a Silicon Valley firm is used to handling. Probably better to stay clear.

Basically the networks and content providers are getting ready to dump it or really jack the fees that Hulu pays.

It may survive, but not in its current form.

[MannyIsGod]

I never use it anymore. I even had plus for a couple of months but it sucked.

[mrsmaalox]

Well I just started watching the UK The Office last night so I suppose I'd better finish it up real quick.

[Frenzy]

"Some fear that viewers are becoming accustomed to light advertising loads."


Heaven forbid!

[Dex]

Well I just started watching the UK The Office last night so I suppose I'd better finish it up real quick.

Shouldn't take you long. There are only 14 episodes.

[LnGrrrR]

Eh, I can survive on Netflix.

[Blake]

Eh, I can survive on Netflix.

Net flix is just too good for 8 bucks a month.

I'm seriously considering dropping the uverse package

[leemajors]

Disney puts their new kids shows up within a couple of days on Netflix.

[Trainwreck2100]

Disney puts their new kids shows up within a couple of days on Netflix.

Does that include the marvel shows? I wants my 90s spider man

[TheMACHINE]

i dropped my uverse-300 back to Uverse-200 and just got the net flix.

[leemajors]

Does that include the marvel shows? I wants my 90s spider man

I don't think it does, but they do put all the live action and Phineas and Ferb ones. I wish they did it with the Avengers one but I have those DVR'd.

[koriwhat]

goodby.... good buy? good by? good bye? goodby.

[Trainwreck2100]

I don't think it does, but they do put all the live action and Phineas and Ferb ones. I wish they did it with the Avengers one but I have those DVR'd.

http://marvel.com/news/story/15762/m...#ixzz1KyuXLGbm

they're supposed to have the avengers and all spider man animation series through the summer, but they're probably saving avengers for after the release of the captain america movie

[leemajors]

http://marvel.com/news/story/15762/m...#ixzz1KyuXLGbm

they're supposed to have the avengers and all spider man animation series through the summer, but they're probably saving avengers for after the release of the captain america movie

The theme song sucked, but I liked the Marvel Knights Black Panther thing. Not sure if it is supposed to be like the motion comics they have on there (which kinda suck imo), but it was very entertaining.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Cable TV is dying and there's nothing these networks can do about it. If sites like Hulu don't kill it, netflix will and already is.

[Stringer_Bell]

Not surprising. Anything that meets consumers needs but cuts into profits must be snuffed out. It's just not good business otherwise.

[Slomo]

Are any of you familiar with this?

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/...-strikes-back/

[JoeChalupa]

I don't like the use of the "R" word but that is just me.

[PakiDan]

I never use it anymore. I even had plus for a couple of months but it sucked.

Whaaaat?? Hulu Plus is great. It allows me to catch all of my favorite shows at any time right on my TV. The streaming is awesome. It's like having a DVR that records almost everything.

[Nathan Explosion]

I love Hulu because I'm really bad with my DVR and Hulu is my backup plan, that is almost my primary option.

[FromWayDowntown]

I use HuluPlus every day to have background noise when I work. It will suck if it goes away. I should really push through to check out shows I want to see.

[koriwhat]

oh no not hulu and ty syndicated tv show streams!

[dirk4mvp]

kori scoffs everything.

fill out a mookie krew application, got.

[MannyIsGod]

Whaaaat?? Hulu Plus is great. It allows me to catch all of my favorite shows at any time right on my TV. The streaming is awesome. It's like having a DVR that records almost everything.

Yeah but my DVR and torrents already allow me to do that. And they allow me to do it in HD and with 5.1. Hulu Plus on my PS3 was just bad. It was really buggy as well.

[MannyIsGod]

You know even if I get past how bad the Hulu Plus software is compared to Netflix the big deal is the content and how much more Netflix has. Hulu Plus is just so limited.