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So Much for Hulu
It appears that, starting next year, Hulu is going to begin the transition to a pay model.
I finally have a chance to prove to the world that I am, in fact, a psychic prognosticator. I hereby foretell the following fate:
Ahem...
In 2010, Hulu viewership will plummet.
In all seriousness, I don't think anyone involved realizes that the majority of the people watching Hulu only do so because it is free. It's just one more source of idle Internet entertainment among thousands. If it costs anything, people will simply go elsewhere for their circuses. Even worse, I foresee this going the same route as cable television. Many of you may be too young to remember, but the original selling point of cable was that many of the channels were ad free. But, as CATV supplanted broadcast television, the ads crept in. I'll wager Hulu will charge for the content and, if they do not at the start, will eventually also continue to show ads.
I gave up the Daily Show when I gave up TV a decade ago (Fuck, I feel old... I watched TDS for four years before I left for university, which itself was a decade past). With Hulu, I could watch it again, as, as much as I enjoyed it, the show was never worth anything more than free to me. I may well have to give it up a second time. The same goes for Family Guy and The Simpsons. They're funny, but not worth any amount of money to me.
I finally have a chance to prove to the world that I am, in fact, a psychic prognosticator. I hereby foretell the following fate:
Ahem...
In 2010, Hulu viewership will plummet.
In all seriousness, I don't think anyone involved realizes that the majority of the people watching Hulu only do so because it is free. It's just one more source of idle Internet entertainment among thousands. If it costs anything, people will simply go elsewhere for their circuses. Even worse, I foresee this going the same route as cable television. Many of you may be too young to remember, but the original selling point of cable was that many of the channels were ad free. But, as CATV supplanted broadcast television, the ads crept in. I'll wager Hulu will charge for the content and, if they do not at the start, will eventually also continue to show ads.
I gave up the Daily Show when I gave up TV a decade ago (Fuck, I feel old... I watched TDS for four years before I left for university, which itself was a decade past). With Hulu, I could watch it again, as, as much as I enjoyed it, the show was never worth anything more than free to me. I may well have to give it up a second time. The same goes for Family Guy and The Simpsons. They're funny, but not worth any amount of money to me.
Comments
Most people are really only going to watch what's free. Maybe some people who already buy TV shows on iTunes or DVD might buy them on Hulu instead, if Netflix doesn't have the show streaming and Hulu has a better price.
If they do leave some shows as free, then I predict those shows are going to get lots of viewers. That is they will have far more viewers than they would have gotten competing against all the other free shows on Hulu.
Now think about that in reverse. Hulu will have the power to determine what shows are popular by deciding which shows are free. Of course a bad show will not be popular, even if it's free. However, putting out an episode 1 for free amidst a sea of non-free is going to get a lot of views. Whoever controls the prices at Hulu will have a larger amount of control over which shows make the cut than the viewers do.
1) The streaming quality sucks for me. Maybe it's just my computers, but the video is stuttery and choppy recently. Sites like Comedy Central and South Park Studios don't have that problem.
2) I have to re-watch the ad at the beginning of the episode every time I reload the show, even if it's in my queue and has saved my place. If it knows I am halfway through the episode, then it should know I already watched an ad.
3) I already pay for cable because my roommate wanted it, and we have TiVo. I will simply learn how to use it and record the shows I want to watch that way, since there is no extra cost to me. Hulu was convenient, but I am not willing to double-pay for content that is poorly-presented.
4) Did I mention my internet connection sucks here? My internet connection drops several time throughout an episode, and stays out for about a minute. This wreaks all kinds of havoc on Hulu.
Hulu used to be a service I was willing to pay for. Through a combination of their degradation and my own acquisition of cable, they are not any longer.
And note that this person is an executive from News Corp, not actually from Hulu. He still has the other two major stakeholders (NBC/Universal and ABC) to convince.
I wonder how many people will transition from Hulu to EZTV? The proportion of people able to handle torrents continues to rise, and EZTV is, well, easy.
Well, there goes my plans of getting rid of cable in my parents house.
I've been looking for a way to ditch my TV service for months now but I have not been able to find a good replacement. Netflix has recently begun adding current season TV shows to their on demand line up but not for all networks. Many networks offer streaming of their shows from their website but that would require hooking a computer up to my TV rather than simply using the 360 as an extender (why is there no web browser on that thing???) Some of those networks (kid nets mostly) only offer crappy versions of their shows online if at all.
I really like the model for torrents and rss for filtered download though I admit I've transitioned quite a bit of my EZTV time to Hulu in the past months.
At least South Park is easy and free to watch, and probably will be for as long as it exists.
It's still free for now, and I can sit through the two minutes of advertising to access the content. Hell, I just pop up another browser tab and ignore the ad altogether.
I love how more shows are easily available to watch on streaming Netflix. It gets me interested in newer shows, and I can get the next episode without having to wait. Another awesome thing is a few of the newer shows released their brand new episodes for a short period of time after it's aired. Some of these shows are from either HBO or Showtime, so I don't have to get the additional channel package.
If Netflix or something similar could have a larger array of shows and movies that I can watch whenever with no limitations, I would happily pay around $50/month for it.
For now, I have gotten into Leverage and am getting way too spoiled with all the Law & Order SVU on Netflx. No commercials, in HD, I'm blissfully happy.
Between Netflix instant queue, torrents, and hulu/network internet channels, the Netflix model wins out most of the time for me. If they had more shows on Netflix as they air I'd be set.