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Hulu To Require Viewers To Have Cable Subscriptions
The NY Post reports that Hulu, the video streaming service with over 30 million users, has plans to force those users to prove they have a subscription to cable or satellite TV if they want to keep watching. Quoting:
"The move toward authentication is fueled by cable companies and networks looking to protect and profit from their content. The effort comes as entertainment companies continue to face drastic shifts in home viewing habits. Overall spending on home entertainment edged up 2.5 percent to $4.45 billion in the first quarter as a surge in digital streaming — which rose more than fivefold to $549 million — offset a continuing collapse in video rentals, according to Digital Entertainment Group. ... Hulu racked up some $420 million in ad revenue last year and is expected to do well in this year’s ad negotiations. But the move toward authentication, which could take years to complete, will make cable companies happy because it could slow cord-cutting by making cable subscribing more attractive."
USENET it is.
I didn't really need you before, I sure don't need you now.
Hello, Bittorrent!
I'm sure that business model will work great!
Maybe not all, but many if not most.
Fuck you Hulu.
captcha: muscled
How appropriate.
Hulu hemmorages customers after initial roll-out of authentication scheme.
This is exactly the sort of thing that will drive Hulu straight into the ground.
Of all the options available, the one we hate the most and absolutely will not do under any circumstances is give the consumers what they actually want and will happily pay for.
This doesn't make cable subscriptions more attractive.
All it does is make hulu less attractive than it already is.
Fuck that.
Good luck with that Hulu. What's next, is CNN.com going to force me to prove I have cable before reading their site? Hulu, people gladly watch your content with ads and you buckled to the cable providers, torpedoing your independence.
We had an excellent quarter. I negotiated a $40 million golden parachute. Cable guys want what? Bad for business in the long run? Uh-huh. Yeah, we can do that...
It won't slow "cord cutting" to make cable subscriptions more attractive, it'll just lead to people not using Hulu,
CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
To ride the train, you must also have a bus ticket? To get a cellphone, you must also have a landline?
Thanks /. Made my day complete.
How anyone over at Hulu could think that this will work out for them is beyond me.
I will cancel and not look back. Thanks Hulu, for making sure I will use bittorrent to get my content.
I wonder how this will affect HuluPlus... if you pay for their service, will you still have to authenticate with a cable or satellite account?
Totally not related to those same ISPs moving to cut people off from the internet with some special new method of piracy detection and enforcement that is extrajudicial... and being implimented only a few months from now.
It's not like this is coordinated or anything. Collusion doesn't exist. Enhance your calm, Citizen.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Just when you think even some branch of the industry gets it, they demonstrate they don't. It's hard to think of an industry more dedicated towards giving customers what they don't want, and doing everything in their power to make sure that more money slips through their fingers.
You see, Congress, this is what happens when you try to legislate an extinct business model back to health. You don't get better companies, you don't protect jobs or an industry, you just get lazy, stupid dinosaurs who continue to fecklessly drive towards the chasm.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
They do realize that people use Hulu because they do not want to buy cable at home.
It's pretty simple.
I know a lot of people who pay for Hulu and would probably pay more.
But they won't buy cable to watch Hulu. Not a chance. They'll take their business elsewhere.
Oh, well. If they are strict about this authentication, a number of people will simply find a new competitor of theirs. No big loss (except to the cable companies)
Microsoft and Comcast already have authentication worked out for viewing channels on your Xbox 360. They require you to log in with your Comcast account, which knows if you're paying for channels. I can't believe it would take years to do the same thing for Hulu. In any case, I've cut the cord and won't be going back even if they stop broadcasting TV over the air.
People use Hulu because I don't have cable. Isn't that the point?
The move toward authentication is fueled by cable companies and networks looking to protect and profit from their content.
It seems that allowing cable companies to purchase content providers wasn't a good idea after all. Oh wait, that's what everyone except the FCC said already.
What exactly do you expect from a company 1/3rd owned by Comcast, with the other 2/3rds being Fox and Disney.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
"The NY Post reports that Hulu, the video streaming service with over 30 million users..."
Should read:
"The NY Post reports that Hulu, the video streaming service that will soon have only 3 million users..."
The entire (100%) reason I use hulu is so that I don't have to pay the cable company for the pleasure of watching heavily fragmented (by ad interruption) TV shows and movies on someone else's schedule. It used to be easier than navigating eztv or tpb and then waiting for something to download, but I guess that's out the window now.
I got Hulu so that I could cancel my cable subscription
--<Mike>--
Sorry Hulu, but you can go get stuffed.
I cut the cable 3 years ago to go with OTA Digital TV + TIVO, Netflix with iTMS subscriptions for the shows like Daily+Colbert that fell through the cracks.
Considering I get the shows you offer with ads in HD over the air WITHOUT CABLE gives me no reason to use your service, especially now that you've joined the Cable TV Cabal -- which is predicted to start charging $200/month in the years ahead.
Nothing, not even an Obama Mandate REQUIRING me to buy from a Federally Sanctioned Media Provider will ever get me to pay a dime to Comcast, AT&T, Verizon or their ILK.
Hulu is already a miserable site. It isn't going to stop me from cutting the cord. All it's going to do is increase my use of more reasonable services.
That sounds completely fucking stupid and totally defeats the purpose of using hulu and NOT having cable. If it wasn't my isp, i'd NEVER pay for cable. Total overpriced crammed full of commercal bs bunch of channels i never wanted for tv.
Well. Solution.
http://eztv.it/
http://www.bt-chat.com/
And the ol standby. http://thepiratebay.se/
Get to downloadin. You've tried to be reasonable. Now it's time to say fuckit and go pirate something.
After reading TFA (well, CTRL+F plus), it's not clear whether this will be for the free Hulu online, or just Plus subscribers. I currently use the XBMC Hulu plugin, and I'd hate to think that will go away as a result.
sig: sauer
I dropped my cable TV subscription over a year ago, and went with OTA only. This happened wen the cable company forced us to use one of their receivers for each of our four wall-mounted TV's. No thanks. Kept my cable modem, of course.
I've been very happy with it, except for one exception - NBC Sports Network (was Versus) exercised an option in their contract with IndyCar (practically the same day I dropped Comcast, I might add), which took away just about all online streaming. Since I don't get cable, I don't get NBCSN. So I'll be watching yesterday's race tonight via a torrent.
I'm also a very heavy user of Netflix. I love it. My wife and I are watching Battlestar Galactica now - we never saw it while it aired. We're making our way through the series at our pace. I also tend to turn on Top Gear or old Twilight Zone episodes when I want background noise.
My point is that I've adjusted very nicely to not having cable or a dish. I like it a lot. They're only going to manage to frustrate people like me with this move. I'm not going back, so they're really not helping themselves any.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:6 NLT
Will make Hulu irrelevant
. My satellite box has built in recording capabilities. What reason do I have for using Hulu? It suddenly seems more like an extra cost than a reasonable replacement for what I'm already paying too much for.
Hulu has elected to cut off their own, collective testicles with a spoon and shove them down their own throats until they block their airway and suffocate to death.
That's essentially what this is going to do to them.
Step 1: Do something to completely alienate your viewership
Step 2: Viewership (and therefore ad revenues) drop like a penny off the Empire State Building.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit? (Yeah. Right.)
Raging dumbassery, first to last.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Already been said by most other commenters, but:
SCREW THE CABLE COMPANIES.
What I want is for them to DIE. I want an alternative to their money-grubbing, penny-pinching dinosaur. I don't want to have a subscription to them, to use Hulu.
RESULT 1: I just cancelled my Hulu subscription. I hope you will, too, today.
RESULT 2: Just cut the input cables to the Comcast box in my building. Hope they like that.
Once more: SCREW THE CABLE COMPANIES.
And the winner is...Netflix.
My wife watches TV series on HULU. Once they make you buy a cable subscription Hulu is useless and redundant. What executive at Hulu got their pockets lined by making this happen? Guess this spells death to Hulu. Hopefully netflix starts expanding their TV show listings. They are great for movies but Hulu has the better selection of TV series but if I have to settle it will be with netflix!
And to Bit Torrent I shall go.
We are really starting to reap the rewards of allowing content and distribution to merge together.
My webcomic
Well,
It appears that Hulu does not understand that this will most likely make them irrelevant on the internet. :-P
Nobody is going to do this Authentication garbage. I dumped cable TV 7 years ago, and never looked back.
Its going to take a lot more than the prodding of some "about to be extinct" internet media streamer, to get me to change my mind that CABLE/SAT TV BOTH SUCK!
They are a great way to PAY to be advertised to... Why anyone would want to go back to that is beyond me.
I guess executives get more and more retarded with each passing year.
Good Luck Hulu, Prepare to be irrelevant... Much like Microsoft is now. After trying to bully their customers as well. You see whats happening to them
Peace,
Former Hulu-er
Glad I got my antenna up and working (46 miles out from the TX). Turned in my cable box and I cancelled hulu 3 minutes ago. Netflix is next.
Good-bye
I have only a basic-cable subscription, and that's only because it produces a slight -drop- in my total bill compared with just having Internet. I suspect that will not be considered 'paying enough' to permit me to watch Hulu streaming after they turn 'authentication' on.
It's all right, I guess. I'm already getting tired of seeing Hulu streaming interrupted 4 or 5 times for a 1 hour broadcast, with as many as 3 thirty second commercials for each interruption. And one of those interruptions tends to come -right before the credits- these days, which is annoying if I can't be sure there's anything I want to watch during the credits. I also don't like the way Hulu shows me -all- the episodes for the current season of a program, with just a tiny green icon beside most episodes, to indicate that I can only watch two or three of them because I don't have Hulu plus.
Sorry, I'm willing to buy only one streaming package, and for now that's Netflix. If the studios think they're going to split all the content into multiple streaming packages that reproduces the effect of cable TV's price tiers all over again, they've got another thing coming. I don't need their product that much.
RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
or, How I Learned to Stop Paying For Things I Don't Use and Love the Real Online Media Provider.
Netflix's stock is about to recover from that huge screwup back in September...
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
a number of people will simply find a new competitor of theirs.
Which studio is the lawful competitor (with comparable production quality) to the TV studios that license their works to Hulu?
I suspect this page will be filled with tons of "lol everyone will leave" comments.
I left Hulu ages ago. The ads (and long pauses when I blocked them) became more obnoxious and numerous, the library of free content was shit or untimely (or both), and the premium content? Why would I pay for shit I already pay for on cable/Netflix (when I had it)/Amazon Prime?
I haven't touched Hulu in ages and I bet they're counting me as one of the 30 million users.
I watch enough shit (and want it now and in good quality) to justify a cable subscription (with HBO and some other craps).
I order enough shit from Amazon to justify Prime (which comes with a shitty video service).
I cut Netflix off long ago.
Why would I pay for Hulu or put up with tons of ads alongside a shitty library, shitty quality, and release delays?
The only way I would pay for Hulu is if I cut off my cable service. I see this as a viable option for many who don't have the same concerns/impatience as me.
But if they want to require them to stump up a cable subscription on top of the cost of Hulu Plus / the annoyances of Hulu, they've got a big surprise coming.
Of course, they've done the math and figured out that X% will leave and (1-X)% will stay. But I think some PHBs have been conned into believing a bullshit statistic of 30 million users. I couldn't name 2 people I know who use Hulu if you put a gun to my head.
A UHF antenna made from a coat hanger does a fine job of pulling in digital OTA broadcasts. Now I can honestly say that the crap on TV is worth every penny.
www.DIYTVAntennas.com
Hulu to cut the chord on cord cutters
Everyone else on the net seems to point to the article in the NY Post (not exactly known for its careful fact-checking) and the Post article talks about Hulu 'taking its first steps' without a single mention of what those steps are. No other news stories I can find in the last several days talk about any changes occurring to Hulu's model (other than more original programming) or the Hulu user experience. So what the hell is the Post talking about, exactly? What evidence is there — beyond some editorial negative-wishcasting — that anything like this is going on?
The entire (100%) reason I use hulu is so that I don't have to pay the cable company
If only it were that easy. Not everybody happens to live in an area served by FTTH. They have to pay the cable company for Internet access, and for residential customers who don't also subscribe to TV, the monthly Internet bill includes a "dry loop fee" that's about a penny less than the monthly price of the lowest tier of TV. The same thing happens to DSL customers who have gone VOIP- or mobile-only.
That's fine. I have no love for cable TV or Internet service, let alone ComCast. I haven't had cable services for almost a half-decade and I don't miss them a bit. If Hulu adopts this measure I will just stop consuming content altogether, since Hulu is my exclusive source.
Hey, content-producer-tards! And especially ComCrap! You want people to pirate your shows and movies, you keep losing money and make more and more people hate you because of your carpet-bomb infringement lawsuits? Keep this shit up.
Can I login with my Over The Air Antenna information? Doh, I don't need a login to watch TV for free in my neighborhood. ;) I pay 0$ for network TV, how do I convince Hulu that paying nothing for TV is actually legitimate? My guess, I can't. It's bad enough that, the paid, Hulu Plus has less content than Hulu Free. Now there will be no such thing as Hulu Free. Hulu is on a path to self destruction - and just like Netflix these changes are likely out of their control - i.e. the content providers are forcing these changes with licensing restrictions.
Joseph Elwell.
You'd think they learned nothing from watching the backlash against Netflix. They appear to want to one-up Netflix by driving even more of their customers away than Netflix did with it's ill conceived changes. I doubt this even works out well for the cable guys. Only potential winners I see here are Netflix and pirates.
Hulu is getting harassed by the studios so they're either going to have to jack up their prices, eliminate content, or do something like proving you already pay.
The the third option is actually brilliant. Think about it. How many of you know a friend or family member that will never use Hulu? How many of them have satellite or cable? At least one. So borrow their information to get access. It's not like they need it.
This is genius. My estimation of the wisdom of Hulu just went up a notch. Millions of people without cable can very easy get the authentication information to claim they do. And then the studios are in the position of trying to cut off people that supposedly are already paying. Genius.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Don't think for a moment that these guys don't understand why people are using Hulu. This action today shows that they understand quite well. The cable companies are scared shitless that people will cancel and use Hulu instead, and that's why they're doing this.
And yet, they don't get it. They seem to think that this scheme is going to stop people from dropping cable. In fact, all it's going to do is flush Hulu down the toilet. People will still drop cable, but they'll find alternatives to Hulu, both legal and illegal.
You really have to hand it to the entertainment industry. These guys aren't afraid to walk up to their customers, spit in their faces, piss all over them, and then hand them a bill for the privilege. And I'd be willing to bet that the ONLY reason they don't hire Guido, Vinny, and Rocco to handle collections is because the lawyers told them that doing do is a liability issue.
If I worked at Hulu, I'd be updating my resume about now.
...about what shows kids are watching today. The only reason I ever found out about "Community" was via hulu. But since I will never (99.99% certain) pay for cable again, looks like my options are down to Netflix and... Netflix. (I'm too stoopid to figure out Torrents, and my DSL is only 1400kbps down.)
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Or just a cable TV subscription? Seems like it would have to be the TV side to make *any* sense at all for them.
Why is the government not splitting cable companies in two? One side for TV, and one side for internet - since the two are now in competition with each other.
And when did cable companies start *making* content? Aren't they distributors of content?
Just cut the input cables to the Comcast box in my building. Hope they like that.
So you cut off your DOCSIS line (that also carries TV)? Good luck with your dial-up.
Hulu's outside investors have decided this is the straw that broke the camel's back and have sold their remaining stake before it drops through the floor...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/04/hulu-providence-equity-stake-200-million.html
The article is quite silent on how this would affect existing customers of their paid service. Would authentication be a replacement for, or an alternative to, Hulu Plus? Either way it would suck for customers- from there it's a matter of degree. But since broadcast channels increasingly derive some of their budget from cable providers, it's not entirely surprising that the online streaming sites would similarly be trying to back off from a pure ad-based model.
If corporations are people, then this is a suicide note from Hulu. I recommend mandatory confinement to a mental ward of a hospital for 72 hours of observation. Since Hulu, as a corporation is actually a gestalt entity of the board of directors and officers, they must all be placed in the same mental ward so that the gestalt entity can be observed.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
The content industry might not have liked Hulu and they don't like like Netflix. They key point they are missing though is that Hulu + Netflix, found a price point and model that 20 and early thirty somethings found attractive.
They are not going to back to shelling out $60/mo for cable tv. With the recession and jobs being hard to get post college many will never start. Screwing up Hulu from the inside and killing Netflix through starvation and rate jacking is rock dumb. The result we be segregating the market into people with too much money who buy things on iTunes and everyone else. Rather than extracting a few million form Netflix each quarter and enjoying nearly 100% profit from Hulu, they are instead going to get jack and shit when everyone goes back to warez, and boot legs.
They days of pushing ($+50 CATV + (X * $12.99)) / mo are over you can't turn back the clock.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
They just...can't...give...up...trying to turn the internet into television.
expandfairuse.org
I won't miss you...
...due to their pro-SOPA PAC, what's one more convenient-but-not-worth-what-it-REALLY-costs service to stop using?
Straight up the ass. Seriously, you think I should pay $100+ a month for a service that has about a 90/10 crap to quality ratio, AND THEN I should pay another $8 a month for the privilege to watch it online? Many times at a decrease in quality and convenience?
I'm sure they'll look to fuck over Netflix again somehow as well. Pull more of their shows or whatever. Go to hell, the lot of you. What a joke, "prove that I subscribe to cable". Like this is a requirement for being an American citizen or something.
I'm glad I don't own a television. It seems that companies are selling scams rather than products and services these days.
There has always been an inherent tension between what's good for Hulu itself and what its corporate overlords (various TV networks) want from it. The latter group only ever wanted a stop-loss against piracy, initially by providing a way for legitimate TV viewers to catch up on the occasional missed episode without resorting to file sharing. Hulu has been hamstrung by this myopic perspective since the beginning, and it looks like it's only going to get worse in the near term.
Right now the problem is that retransmission fees have put the "broadcast" networks in the same position as traditional cable channels, in that a sizeable portion of their revenue comes directly from the cable companies (and ultimately from cable subscriber fees). Ads alone aren't enough for them any more, especially when Hulu's ads still don't generate as much revenue as regular TV ads do. Hulu's own preferred solution is Hulu Plus, a pay service that effectively competes with cable on its own terms. But Fox, at least, has chosen the alternate path of tying the service directly to the incumbent distribution services, and Hulu is powerless to refuse them.
I signed up for a Hulu trial a month ago. Here's the subsequent interaction I had with them on Twitter:
Me: "Wait, so let me get this straight: you have to pay for Hulu Plus, but you still get commercials? BitTorrent doesn't have commercials. #fail"
@hulu_support: "@kstrauser Hi there! Current season content is expensive, and ads help us compensate our content providers."
Me: "@hulu_support Thanks, but no. I won't be finishing my trial week."
According to Wikipedia, NBCUniversal, Fox Entertainment Group, and Disney-ABC Television Group own a total of 90% of Hulu. You seriously mean to tell me that a company almost totally owned by 3 of the 4 major broadcast networks can't afford to air those networks' own content commercial-free, even when I'm paying them directly without any cable or dish operator acting as an intermediary? I call BS.
Netflix isn't perfect, but I can understand why some content is out of their reach. Qwikster misstep last year aside, I'm happy with their service. I just can't find a reason why I'd ever pay for Hulu, though. If I'm going to have to pay for ad-laden content, I'll get basic cable and be done with it.
And yes, I cancelled my free trial before the week was over. I was sure to tell them why on my way out the door.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
How much did it cost to move to get FTTP?
That's what I call that idea. Nothing will stop cord cutting. The reason is on-demand. A good friend of mine is the head of programming at a well-known cable channel. He tells me he has to run like crazy every day to try to not lose ground, but they're still losing ground because they can't compete with on-demand, anywhere entertainment that the Internet offers.
If Hulu does this, they're only nuking their own business. Customers have already seen the future and it is Netflix. Yes, given the intransigence of the MPAA and Cable companies, there is an initial adjustment to the absence of the blockbuster titles. But then you discover the excellent content produced in other places around the world and the American stuff starts to look tedious.
Since Starz channel picked up its ball and went home, I've discovered production values on Korean movies are just as high as here, and their plots are twisted and interesting. And Bollywood movies are pure fun. Bollywood! Who knew?
I was thunderstruck the other day when my 3-yr old daughter saw a picture of Mickey Mouse somewhere and said, "Who's that?" She honestly had no idea. And it occurred to me that because Disney (and by extension the other MPAA and Cable players) have so locked away their content and have been so intransigent about getting with the times that they are running a real risk of rendering themselves culturally irrelevant. Think about what that also means about their ancillary revenue streams: my kids will never pester me to buy Disney toys or to take them to Disneyland. Disney has unwittingly saved me about $20K (over their lifetimes) that way.
So go on, guys, do the world a favor and destroy Hulu, too. The rest of us will move on happily without you!
If not us, who? If not now, when?
Isn't the whole point of Hulu so you don't need a cable tv subscription? Guess it's off to tpb for me.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The moment they require a cable account is the moment I cancel my Hulu plus subscription. The only reason I have it is because I don't have cable and I don't want cable.
hey!
My cable provider is Cox. My services include Epix. Epix makes a big deal about streaming content - I even used to watch movies from Epix using my Roku.
But about 6 months ago, that stopped working. Seems that for me to stream from Epix, I have to have a cable subscription. Which I do. But since Cox refuses to authenticate me, I cannot stream from Epix. I predict that Cox will take the same attitude toward Hulu. I think all they're doing is a form of net-neutrality tinkering - if I can't stream Epix over their wire, they don't have to worry about that bandwidth.
I contacted by Epix and Cox about this. Epix won't let me in unless Cox says OK, and Cox refuses.
Well, I never liked Hulu all that much anyway...
Nothing will ever get me to subscribe to cable again guys.
Not even if a DOCSIS ISP were to bundle a free TV subscription with all home Internet plans? The "line fees" that DOCSIS and DSL ISPs charge for not bundling the ISP's other services are close to this.
From an economic perspective, Hulu was a way to practice price discrimination. It is less convenient than cable and you don't get sports. The streams sometimes stall, and the quality is often poor. It was, however, something that people were unwilling to pay the premium for cable would buy for whatever they're charging now. Plus they got to sell even more adspace (you know, that stuff that supported TV entirely when it was FREE?). It essentially allowed them to sell the same product to two different markets.
This move will destroy that second market. With the decrease in viewership, there is a corresponding decrease in the value of the adspace. So, they're going to sell fewer subscriptions to fewer people and make less money all the while? They're fucking nuts. Dump your stock in Comcast; it is run by retards.
There, I said it.
Oh, and Hulu ? They are committing suicide with this move.
"But the move toward authentication, which could take years to complete, will make cable companies fail because it will increase cord-cutting by making illegal pirating more attractive."
I catch all my favorite shows, no cable, and no bills. I REGRET NOTHING!!! NOTHING!!!!!
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
But there's no way I'm jumping through yet another hoop to use Hulu. The content sucks and rarely changes. Sure they have some current TV but that's called a DVR. The old TV shows they have are spotty at best and the movies are a joke. I haven't watched it in months and every time I check back there's nothing that interests me. There's little on cable that interests me but at least there's new content all the time. TV in general is miserable and streaming isn't that much better. It'd be cheaper to just buy what shows I watch but it's more about having to wait to 12 months. Honestly there's 2 or 3 shows in any given week I care about seeing at all and I go to the theater a couple of times a year. I even find it hard to find a movie to rent from Red Box and I check them out once a month. To put it into perspective I'm a film and TV fan and grew up on TV and back in the 70s and 80s and would go every weekend to see something in the theater. The truth is Hulu isn't killing them lack of content is killing them. People boast of streaming, streaming what? I wouldn't waste the bandwidth on most of them. Most fan productions are cheesy versions of mainstream movies and shows, most in fact being knock offs. There are rare exceptions like Iron Sky and the like but still a couple of movies from fans a year that are watchable isn't a replacement. We need professionals making the content but we need to get the corporations out of the business. Once the profit is gone it can collapse then maybe something better will replace what we have now.
DSL or WISP
dsl, sat, cell tower........
Good luck with that.
Knock Knock who's there?
Hu?
Hu Who?
Oh, did we make a foolish corporate decision?
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
Who is this Providence Equity
A private equity firm that invests in firms in the entertainment and communications sectors. They appear to own part of Univision, Nextag, CDW, AutoTrader, Blackboard, Major League Soccer, and Zenimax (Id/Bethesda), among other companies I haven't heard of.
and where do I subscribe to their newsletter?
I couldn't find an Atom feed for its news.
Hey Hulu, you hear that?
That's the sound of the majority of your users dropping your service.
Are cable companies the new newspaper industry?
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
I never had a reason to use Hulu before, but now I have a reason to never use it at all. I win!
I have 6Mbps DSL. Still a cable but not Cable.
People who watch pop TV shouldn't be allowed to vote.
If you recommend using the infringing service, what should users do to avoid another Capitol v. Thomas?
"Federally Sanctioned Media Provider" I hate to be that guy, but what exactly do you think OTA TV is?
I think l0ungeb0y might have been referring to a TV license like the UK TV licence, where everyone who owns a TV would have to pay per year for PBS.
From what I remember, Hulu was an effort for the cable companies to stay on the heels of Netflix. Now that Netflix pretty much lives up the ass of those same broadcast companies, what's the point of Hulu? This looks like the broadcast companies pushing the Hulu kill switch.
When will the companies figure out that they will make money when they meet the consumers desires. Forcing us into their tired model will only result in eventual government intervention. Then the whole system will be messed up even more.
And when did cable companies start *making* content?
E! Entertainment Television, for example, has been owned by cable companies since it started.
Also known as "How to kill a successful business overnight"
The software implementation and the UI on Hulu is terrible to begin with, but if they were allowed to time to clean up their act, they could have been a contender.
Now, they're dead, no way in hell would I continue using hulu.
I'd rather go back to reading books as my main entertainment than help fund the 3rd Yachts of excecutives at FOX, WARNER BROTHERS etc...
screw hollywood
Thank you once AGAIN big media corporations, for proving to me YET AGAIN why I should not feel bad in downloading movies/television illegally. I WAS paying for a Hulu subscription, which was well worth the money since it means that I did not have to pay $75+ for cable. Because of legal alternatives such as Netflix and Hulu, I had almost entirely stopped downloading illegally. With this latest asshat move however, you have once more inspired me to help rush you off into grave by firing up the seedy back channels of the internet. DIE BIG MEDIA CORPORATIONS......DIE!!!
That's like requiring all bus-pass purchasers to prove that they own an insured vehicle.
Bow before me, for I am root.
The article sounds sketchy and it's the NY Post. I suspect this is being written as if you won't be able to use Hulu at all without cable in order to make it sensational, but it's probably just some marketing strategy Hulu is considering for specific shows. This article calls it a "rumor".
Antitrust violation.
You can't bundle services in this manner without it being an antitrust violation. Requiring a cable or satellite subscription to get HBO makes sense as the network is shown over cable or satellite, but requiring one to stream content over the internet doesn't make any sense. I suspect that the reason it's going to take years is that they're hoping to roll it out when a Republican is in the Whitehouse so that the DoJ isn't enforcing antitrust regulations.
Cable companies: Here's what we want you to do, Hulu.
Hulu: LOL no that's stupid.
Cable companies: Here's all the dirt we have on you and all the patents we're going to say you violate. Do as we say or we'll lock you up in court for so long that every cent you have will go to paying lawyers or you'll be banned from doing business.
Hulu: You wouldn't dare!
Cable companies: We spend more money in coke-fueled strip club outings in a week than you make per quarter in revenue.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
The only source reporting on this is the New York Post. Until someone reputable picks up on it, it's a safe bet that this is nothing more than tabloid drivel.
You are someone who enjoys content enough to pay for it, but wants more flexibility in how you consume it -- on your own schedule, with the device of your choosing. I am sure that this is the crux of their "strategy". "People love our content, but are frustrated by the constraints of the old-fashioned cable TV experience."
Hulu has proven to be a viable model, so now the cable companies are trying to transfer their business model onto the Hulu platform.
(I'm not saying I agree with this logic, or eve think it will work out. . .)
I've got Freesat. No subscriptions, five thousand channels.
TPB it is, then.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
I have fiberoptic internet to the house. Does that count?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
After the way that the cable "service" publicly insulted my father when he went in to pay a bill (his work clothes were dirty), there is zero chance in hell that they will ever get another subscription from myself, my parents, or my siblings. ...so I certainly hope that this news is not entirely true. I was looking at Hulu as my next subscription service (currently have Funimation, CrunchyRoll, and Amazon Prime) after I ditch Dish Network this year. This move would almost guarantee that Netflix gets the subscription, and I'm non too eager to use them after they pulled that pricing stunt awhile back.
On the flip side, perhaps I should just give my father access to my Amazon Prime account. That would probably be better than going with Netflix. Ya know what, I think I'll do that.
Thanks, Slashdot, this post has been helpful.
I subscribed and watched like two shows. Boring as cardboard. Cancelled the service, to user unfriendly.
Truth is my life is busy enough as it is, commercials and debacles that confuse me?
Dragging me to their scheduled events? At work we use to call them 'meetings'.
Come to think of it some productions look a lot like Powerpoint.
I buy the shows I want now, if I'm interested. Six seasons of Lost? I do not have the time.
A thirteen episode season of a good story, maybe.
Content providers are going to loose customers because they are not catering to their customer base.
The old days of multigenerational television shows like Happy Days are over.
Multigenerational Cable service is going the same way.
Even Tivo is a bit out dated. Institutionalizing the 'commercial' dodge was amusing at best.. stand back and its pure insanity to put up with it.
Make it easy.. or I've better things to do with my time.
Make it less expensive.. or I just can't afford to pay.
The human race has lived without TV for a long time, I doubt they'll notice its passing.
fiber optic cable?
Congratulations, Hulu, you've just rendered yourself irrelevant.
This sounds like the same mistake cable providers have been making going back to the old horrible days of TCI. The business model was based on the assumption that users were trapped in the service with no competitive options, and the service provider therefore had wide latitude in the services and pricing structure they felt like providing.
Service providers either haven't figured out yet that this just isn't true anymore, or they have some bizarre idea that the majority of TV consumers are old enough and un-savvy enough to be unable to find alternatives. Hulu would therefore be seen as a blip on the radar that the cable providers need to tweak to retain their iron grip on their user base.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Mr. and Mrs TV Tray, the last vestige of humanity that still watches TV in real time, are reducing in numbers. Some are finding alternatives like Roku boxes with the help of their kids and grandkids, and overall that generation is dying out.
I truly believe that the majority of us who are cable free and internet savvy see the need to pay for our programming, but we refuse to participate in the old cable TV business models. An effort to force us is an automatic fail, because the alternative they're driving us to is *free*, and there is no way in hell they can compete against that.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
"Comcast also agreed to cease its management of the News Corp., (NWS, Fortune 500) NBC Universal, and Disney (DIS, Fortune 500)-owned video sharing site Hulu - though Comcast and NBC Universal can still maintain a financial stake in the site." - How's that working out for us? (link)
Bark less. Wag more.
This is a rumor spread by "sources", as the NY Post helpfully explains. It looks like it's only a speculative rumor; it's certainly nothing official. I just got off the phone w/ Hulu customer service about this --if it were true, I would have immediately canceled my Hulu Plus subscription.
While the customer support guy was not permitted to respond directly to claims in new stories, he said they hadn't heard of such a change, he'd be shocked if they did so, and would feel the same way about it that I did. It doesn't make much sense, as this would precisely eliminate the reason I bother to pay for Hulu Plus -- because I don't have, and will not buy, cable service. A move like this would do nothing to enhance Hulu's revenue, and would almost certainly eliminate a large part of their subscribers.
If you're a Hulu Plus subscriber and you're actually concerned about it, call them yourself; 1-877-719-2773. No hold time, no phone tree; it goes directly to a human in customer service.
They'd have to put something on compelling enough for me to pay to watch it - which isn't really likely. I got rid of my cable tv service some time ago. The only thing we watch at home is Netflix, and even that is pretty marginal considering the $130/month I have to pay for cable modem service with sufficient bandwidth & usage.
Oh yeah, it was when you needed to prove you owned a horse before you could buy an automobile.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
RIAA: hey, we're making less money under our Jurassic distribution system; you must be stealing our property!
Insurance companies: give us money and we'll do our best to find ways not to cover you!
Political parties: give us money and we'll do our best to bicker back and forth under the guise of doing the people's business.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
Frankly, I'm not particularly excited about the way Hulu works already. I'd much rather have a standardized set of video streaming interfaces that would be implemented similarly across various decentralized websites. If NBC wants to change a policy, go right ahead without impacting content from CBS. A content producer wishes to distribute directly to consumers instead of going through a 'network'? Go right ahead. ABC wants to be more ad-supported while FOX goes ad-free with premium subscription, great. All the while, a standardized set of interfaces means my XBMC box can stream from any of the above using its much better interface, decode and render capabilities compared to flash or silverlight designed websites. You don't need to fund an android and an iphone and a windows phone/tablet client, the community will construct one.
Really, such a beast would be the holy grail of a la carte content that most cable critics have long called for.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
If all you want to do is stay up to date, drop hulu, drop cable, drop everything except an internet connection and get wikipedia.
You can read all the important details for whole seasons of shows in the time it would take you to watch up to the second commercial break of the real thing. Heck, you'll know more than most viewers, as you'll learn about the bits they missed from the fanatics who carefully record the plot of every inane show in intimate detail.
Don't bother with torrents. There's too much risk of exposure (you can't receive a packet without telling someone where to send it, so all enforcement needs to do is join the swarm and record every address they connect to...), and once you get the show, you'd have to actually watch it.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
If you want to view a live video stream you must login via a satellite or cable subscription.
Maybe, just maybe, if the percentage of commercials vs content (aka signal to noise) wasn't nearly 1:4, so many people wouldn't be so eager to jump ship. When any halfway decent movie shown on non-premium channels gets chopped up and alternates between the movie and the commercials every 5 minutes towards the end, give me one good reason to watch it on TV.
When I can download a full-length movie in decent quality in the span of two commercial "breaks" (ironically enough provided by the same company as the cable TV), throw it onto a USB stick, and plug that into my TV to watch, I'd take that over 30+ minutes of inane commercials.
I'll just get my favorite shows on DVD, not comcast.
And get sports and political talk shows where? The game shown OTA isn't always your favorite team's game.
sat, cell tower
Hulu's demographic isn't going to be fans of the 5 GB per month cap for both sat and cell Internet.
That depends on how much it costs to move within FTTP's service area.
Hulu is a mere 5 years old. It was founded in 2007. We are just at the beginning of the sea change in disruptive technology. If Hulu wants to cut its own throat, someone else will come along.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.
Youtube is a rudimentary fullfillment of that prophesy.
The lack of need for a music industry is killing the current parasite. Music and musicians adapt fine and all is well. No need to panic.
The lack of need for pregurgitated propagandii perpitrated perpetually program pandering pustules we call the media, our enemy, will
give way to population perfected programming particularly presented palatable personas propheting pandemic.
Thufferin' Thuccothash! Did I Thpit on you? Here's a hanky.
That's right, the internet and computers blur the need for several old school things. Newspapers? Magazines? Blogs are certainly evolving faster than their predecessors and outpacing them in some cases.
Now we have YouTube, Open source movies, open source animation, individuals, film students and everything in between. Individuals broadcast live programs both video and audio. More and more power has come to the individual and now that we're all a networked audience, the worlds a stage that frees us from the constraints of a parasitic dangerous tool of government and special interest.
Well ding,dong the witch is dead! 25 years and no one will care about the burnt out crack neighborhood they call Hollywood.
I personally welcome ourselves as overlords.
'Cause cable/satellite/broadcast and the studios that fill them all eat where they sh*t and no one is amused, let alone fascinated with anything but the fewer and farer between techo-breakthroughs. Internet killed the media star.
Personally if the world took over reporting the news, just generally, the average Joe is already someone I'd rather give the time of day than the inhuman swine genetically attracted to the film/tv/music industry.
Another story near this asks if we are still evolving. I think we may be, electronically, artificially, as a networked human race be on to something here.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
No ads at all. Seriously Hulu, if you're going to be dickheads about having people prove their cable/satellite service, then I demand you drop the ads in your feeds. The way I see it, I've already paid my dues, so to speak. In the form of my Satellite service. You're already one step from the edge if irrelevance with feeble content, so if I were you, I wouldn't piss in my own Cheerios. (yeah, I know. But I hate cornflakes.)
Where will you run to now, fools?
Take shelter in a nice secluded bay.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I think this is very stupid on Hulu's part as many people use them as an alternative to satellite and cable. So why pay for their service if you already have cable?
One Net to rule them all, One Net to find them,
One Net to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Cable where the Hulu lies.
*click**beep**beep* Scotty, One to Mod up!
*torrents* cable_accounts.pdf
Ok so let's just say, I am dumb enough to still have cable TV, or Satellite.
Would I be dumb enough to pay for hulu or get a DVR. HUMM.
If I have a DVR I don't need Hulu.
So Hulu is going to require you to have a service that makes theirs useless.
Great Idea guys.
is that there's no mention of the pay service. Honestly, I can see why they would want to force the free users out. But requiring a verification from the paying customers would be enough to kill it. Might be interesting to watch the piracy numbers if they ever did alienate everyone that way. I know I would go back to eztv and others if they ever did. I have no intention of paying for cable service. Roku is all I need, as long as I have netflix, amazon, and hulu+. Kill hulu+, which is the best legit channel for the shows I like, and torrents become the only cost effective alternative. I don't think getting rid of hulu will do anything to change user habits. That boat has sailed. The only question is, are they (the television entertainment industry) really willing to commit suicide in this way? Just seems unnecessary. I'll tell you one thing that would win me back as a cable subscriber: Digital cable with all the trimmings for under $20 a month. I would throw away my Roku in a second. I'm not holding my breath though.
This signature intentionally left blank.
This why we need Google, Apple and hell even throw in Microsoft to start laying down their own fiber/pipes. The same way Apple negotiated with the label, these guys need to with the studios and content providers. The problem with Netflix, Hulu and any other steaming service is that you have pay the cable provider. Satellite is cheaper but for Internet I still need to pay a cable provider.
In the morning I had a Comcast subscription, as well as Hulu Plus. I have now cancelled both. Fuck you, you idiots. These companies need to be made to understand that even a rumor of stupid actions like this carries serious consequences. I would have qualified to continue with Hulu, I was paying for cable, I was paying for Hulu Plus! And you just lost me! How does it feel to be retarded, huh?
That kind of defeats the point of Hulu. I use Hulu Japan so that I don't need to subscribe to cable or satellite tv. If they said I needed another subscription, I would find another place to download from (iTunes, etc.).
They did this with the last Olympics. I was all excited that they'd finally have streaming Olympics and I would get to watch downhill, luge, etc. BUT NO you had to prove you had a cable subscription. So I didn't watch a bit of it. Is my life any worse. Nah.
-- QED
Not only does hulu have forced advertising on their PAID subscription but now they are going to require that you have a cable subscription in order to view hulu? That takes ball or stupidity, Im not sure which.
Netflix may not be the mega giant it once was but its still a hell of a lot better than hulu. Its cheap, no commercials AT ALL, the majority of the time its fast (which is probablly just my ISPs traffic during peak hours), it has a good selection and it just works.
Ill be done with cable by the time this comes around as it is since cable to me is a expensive and utterly pointless service for me. I simply dont watch much tv, few shows I do like I can watch online or download easily enough and watch at my leisure. I dont even like most new movies, majority of the time I have the tv on Im watching a dvd rest is spent on netflix watching like frasier or reno 911.
If it is one guarnteed way to make sure I am not a paying customer is to try and force me to do things. Even if I want or already do them if you force me you will lose as a customer forever.
At that point I'll just stop using Hulu. And I'm almost ready to tell Cox to take their digital cable box and stick it up their corporate ass.
Well I will never join Hulu now because of this.
I can get U.S. television shows elsewhere on the net.
How about an earth-shattering idea. Just put ads into TV shows and post them via bittorrent.
You can put ads on the tracker search page too.
The point is, with bittorrent you get other people to do the broadcasting for you.
If you absolutely must have ads, put them in the film itself.
But if you please, do not put them in the middle. Put them at the beginning and well tagged so that we can skip past them if we like.
That way only people who want to watch the ads will and it won't ruin the experience.
Right, they started taking down shows, that's a sure sign that someone was messing with the service.
But I didn't see this move coming - the whole point of Hulu was that it as "Time shifted TV on the net" - sure we'll play the usual ads vs viewer games, just like good ol basic TV. But now requiring "proof you spent money to be able to watch TV?!" Nope.
Plus a lot of good shows are winding down anyway and I don't see as many replacements. Lie to me left the air last year. Chuck just finished its wrap up. Bones probably only has a season or two left. Venerable ol' Simpsons might actually be leaving the air in a year-ish. I think the British show Misfits only has a year or two left of short seasons. Anime Tiger & Bunny only went on for a year, now they're moving toward a movie. House is ending soon.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I just barely have cable television - $24.99 "limited basic" from Comcast.
I wonder if that would be enough to satisfy this scheme, or if they would only let me have the Hulu version of the channels I get?
(My wife isn't ready to give up on cable - even though it's really nothing more than CSPAN + OTA channels. But this is $50 less than what we were paying per month.)
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
I dropped Direct TV AND Hulu!
o/
I just dropped cable AND hulu after suffering through their commercials. Air, Amazon and discs. We're fine and up $90/month. That plus 16 channels off an HD antenna is plenty.
$6 of entertainment guaranteed to last a day or two. You sound like you *need* tv to be entertained. You sound addicted to badly produced television show.
From Hulu's forums:
Hi all,
Thanks for posting and sharing your thoughts. I have posted on another thread addressing this issue, but want to say here as well that nothing has changed for our service, so I wouldn't pay too much attention to any articles speculating otherwise. We work hard to improve our service for all users, so if we ever add any new features, we'll be sure to announce them on our website and blog ( http://blog.hulu.com ).
As always, we very much appreciate your feedback, and strive to wow our customers like no other company can.
Thanks,
Bernie S (Hulu) posted on Apr 30 2012, 11:09:48 PM
Cable stations pay for content. Hulu pays for content. I understand that the cable companies don't like Hulu taking business away from them. My question is, why is that anyone else's problem? It's called competition. If I own Target, should I force my customers to shop at Wal-Mart too?
I'm no mathemagician, but I'll do my best.
In order for this move to net a profit, the Hulu ad revenue generated by non-cable subscribers (significant) has to be less than the sum of cable subscriptions from people that want Hulu badly enough to get a new cable run (insignificant), plus cable subscriptions from people who were thinking about quitting but now won't only because that would interrupt their Hulu service (insignificant).
No. There's just no way that works out.
Someone on the executive board needs to take a step back and think about whether or not Hulu would've ever worked in the first place if this restriction was on it from day one. (It wouldn't have.)
If Comcast thinks I'm going to change my mind about dropping their service like a rock 2 months ago they've got another think coming.
I'm still paying $65 a month for internet service and it's only that cheap because I have my own modem and don't have to rent one from them. It's also because my city mandated that I have a choice between no broadband service or Comcast. Fark that shiat.
So far I have refrained from piracy. That was something I used to do when I was a poor high school kid back in the '80s. Games went for $30 a pop, but there was a black market where they were sold for $5. Now it's free but my morals have kept me legal. Yes, morals, not the fear of getting caught. I figured since I write software I didn't want anyone stealing my work so I shouldn't steal other people's work.
But fuck it - I can't even watch a YouTube video without ads anymore. Sorry, but I'm sick of it.
I'm down with piracy now.
The world is moving away from the idea of linear channels with schedules set by other people towards a world where you watch what you want when you want and the dinosaurs in the media companies are scared to death of it because they know that they will never make as much money in the post-broadcast world as they do now.
Its not just internet streaming, they dont like PVRs much either because firstly PVRs let you skip the ads (either with an ad skip button or just by fast-forwarding them) and secondly most stuff watched on PVRs isn't counted in the numbers used to figure out how much to charge advertisers and viewers for the channel/content.
You knew that the free internet services for your viewing pleasure were going to become to large to quick for this not to happen. I am surprised they have not gone into some over elaborate payment plan for your favorite shows/movies
It is laughable to begin with, when they claim on how the industry is losing out. For one no one watches TV, or Moives to due working 8-10 hours a day, taking care of there own lives, family, there spouses, or themselves, ect. Only the media watches the media, then writes about blogs, newspaper articles, magazine articles, on some idiot reality show, that no one really watches to begin with. The industry pretty much slit its own wrists, years ago, before the internet.
I will not even get started on the Ads they show on TV, only to say the morons at these companies find the commercial funny, only to find out that no one who watches TV actually watches there stupid Ads. I swear they make these commercials with subliminal messages (your are a idiot you need to buy this for no reason DO IT NOW). These are not the paid 30min ads , but the 30 min ads are far worse.
Smart move to sell off the company to cable companies, or is it a trap by cable companies? Subscribscriptions will certainly drop once this gets rolling and devalue their service. That would be to the cable companies advantage. Only reason I have cable tv now I because my wife watches programming Hulu simply doesn't carry (or didn't). I'd dump my channels and pay for the less expensive Hulu in a heartbeat if I could.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
I'd gladly dump cable and pay the money to an online TV station that caters towards Sci-Fi and tech news, like oh, TechTV before G4 killed it.
In fact, why not have someone come up with a good business plan and see if they can Kickstart it.
Anyone?
The early years of cable had no ads on some channels and fewer ads on channels with ads. Greed caused the cable company to hold onto more money forcing channels to need advertizing or add more. I'm surprised HBO and some other channels have not been forced into ads (I bet you a share of the premium fee goes to the cable company!) At some point the local cable company started inserting local ads over the ads on the broadcast channels when they were on cable-- one could easily see this with a TV that was not on cable. I still wonder how that one made it out of court (it must have been in court) because if I pay a lot of money for a local area ad on the broadcast channel I would be upset to know that it would not be seen by cable subscribers unless I pay the cable company too.
I've only noticed the changes over many years in my area. Regardless, the business models of today require constant growth and unsustainable returns for publicly traded companies. Obviously, going backwards in profits is extremely bad (some corps kill people over it) but just staying at the same level of profit is also bad and hurts share price. The model promotes pushing things to the extremes and for short term gains; until the system is patched the design flaws will continue to harm customers for greater profit. In all businesses. It also can warp the influence of competition in the so-called marketplace towards competing for profits and not for customers, which is why you can see whole industries engage in price fixing when competition is supposed to be their primary focus. Cost externalization is the name of the game today. think about it.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Ok, I got it guy's, here's what we do: All Hulu users get together (how doesn't matter) and pick someone and we all pay a tiny fraction of their cable bill. Viola! We're all customers. Suck it fuck faces! Suck it!
People use Hulu to get AROUND having to subscribe to cable or satellite. If they start doing this, another service will pop up in its place.
LOL glad I never got used to using HULU =-)
If it were like amazon mp3, high quality (HD) and when i buy it its into the cloud storage it goes, for a FAIR price (hosting cost + amount of viewers / advert revenue) then I'd be buying digital versions of all of my shows. I could download as many times as I want, but uploading it back to my friends cloud would take eons and would be quicker to just have them buy a copy.
Hurr durr but lets piss off our customer instead!
Making me prove I have a subscription to cable to get hulu is like telling me I have to have a car to ride the city bus.
Replace "children" with "mountain bike".
Monday: Help the mountain bike with the homework.
Tuesday: Help the mountain bike wash the cat/dog.
Friday: Take the mountain bike out bowling.
Wait, that didn't work out as well as I thought it would. Still, you get the picture.
www.clarke.ca
and the home of the brave is willing to bravely place their boot on computer illiterate grandmothers and force feed steaming piles of crap to them or sue them because they happen to be across the street from the torrent restaurant, you bet they will sue everyone they want!
There is NOTHING good on broadcast TV (over the air), nothing good on cable, nothing good on satellite. It's all cr@pola anymore. "Hollywood" is completely out of good ideas for movies, for TV shows. Time to just shut it all off and go back to using your time for something OTHER than watching their cr@pola. Just look at the TV listings - what the hell good shows are -really- there??? There sure as hell isn't any real good movies that have come out in the last few years - it's all recycled cr@p!
The MPAA and RIAA should sue the cable companies for encouraging piracy. They are certainly encouraging it more than that grandmother in Florida
Where in the Constitution does it say that corporations have the 'right' to protect their profits? Sounds like pure greed to me. If anything greed needs to be outlawed.
But the move toward authentication, which could take years to complete, will make cable companies happy because it could slow cord-cutting by making cable subscribing more attractive
Should read:
"But the move toward authentication, which could take years to complete, will make cable companies happy because it could slow cord-cutting by making Hulu less attractive"
:wq
This is going off topic, but if you hate cable companies and their greedy shitty ways (as I do...) then why do you have a favorite team?
Two different people. I'm the one who hates pay-TV companies' greed; my aunt's husband has the favorite team. These out-of-market favorite teams can arise when A. someone moves, B. a favorite player from the home team is traded to another team, C. a child in the family graduates from high school and starts college, or D. the star athlete from a family member's alma mater graduates and begins a career in college or professional sports. I've tried several times to convince him to drop Xfinity TV, but he tells me that come hard times, he'd go back to dial-up before going back to rabbit ears.
said it best, http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones Seriously. They are *trying* to make piracy superior to their own products.
This is no different from the camera industry resisting digital cameras, guess what? You don't make the rules. The consumers do. Lots of businessmen seem to have forgotten that they serve the market, not the other way around. The first company to release TV shows the day they air, for about $1-$5 (maybe based on SD vs HD you charge more?) with no DRM and fast downloads, and its yours, on your computer, watch it when you want.. is going to make billions.
Digital media have next to no distribution cost. You sell more and more copies for less, and you make more. Valve just realized this, have you noticed all the steam sales? It seems every day now a game is on sale for $5. Not a crappy, old, DOS game from somebody's garage sale, but fairly new and impressive AAA games are selling for $2-10. That seems absurd, when they retail for $50-60. BUT YOU MAKE MORE MONEY. Because PEOPLE ACTUALLY BUY THEM when the price is FAIR.
Requiring a cable subscription to use hulu is no different than video game companies requiring you to be always online and connected to their service. You're making the pirated version BETTER, you're actively hamstringing YOUR OWN PRODUCT. This is the stupidest thing you could possibly do in business, but out of a sense of "justice" we all have to become internet police and "get those damn pirates!". Its not good for anybody.
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
we could have hundrads os small-media companies, and capitalsum would be working fine, probibly better infact.
there would be increased compitation, leading to better quality (or maybe a lower common denominator (but if that is what the public demands doesn't that MAKE it quality?))
Anyone know if their Hulu Plus subscriptions will require a cable provider, as well?
Don't forget that if you want to watch your favorite team's game too close to home, Directv and Dish will blackout the game thereby forcing you to buy tickets.
I thought such blackouts were canceled if the game sold out three days before the kickoff, especially in the NFL. In fact, that's part of why some stadiums sell a lot of their tickets to radio stations at promotional fire-sale prices: because the money they make from their share of TV advertising revenue exceeds what they miss out on by not selling those tickets at full price. Case in point: When was the Super Bowl last blacked out in the city where it was played?
um.
But do you have company-to-which-Verizon-sold-its-wired-infrastructure fiber? For example, Verizon recently sold its copper and fiber operations in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Frontier Communications so that Verizon can concentrate on Verizon Wireless.
If Hulu takes this route, I will be cancelling my subscription and have to go back to pirating...which I have not done for ~6-7 years. I like Netflix, but Hulu has a lot of newer content...and about any mainstream TV show imaginable. You would think they would learn from Netflix about cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Well, goodbye Hulu+ subscription. If this costs me even one show I regularly watch, I'll take my money back and go back to TPB for new eps as they're released. I wouldn't imagine this would have much of an effect on overseas shows (anime mainly), but if it does i'll be even more ticked. I haven't had cable in years since 90% of the channels are mindless filler I never watch, and the cable companies sh!t themselves at the thought of letting you pick and choose what channels you wanted... SOO... F U bid media... you could make tons of $ if you adjusted your style even partially. A la carte selection could cost more than basic with fewer channels so you keep money and your customers are happier. If they find themselves pining for more a la carte channels but can't justifty the cost... BOOM, back to one of your packages... everyone is happy!
For sports...the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL all have apps.
Which black out anything shown in your area OTA, on national pay TV, or on regional pay TV. For example, Monday Night Football is blacked out because it's on Disney's sports channel.
If you want to use a car, you'll need to pay the horse & buggy industry for the privilege
Can you say "Unfair monopoly protection." ... I knew you could. Can you say "Unfair protection of a bad business model." ... I knew you could. Can you say "Stifling innovation." ... I knew you could ;-).
Is this a last ditch attempt at an April Fools joke? Surely the OP knows those are supposed to come on the 1st!?!
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
We can always make our voice heard...
http://www.hulu.com/support/support_form
1-877-719-2773
If they risk losing much of their customer base, perhaps they will change their mind. Sounds eerily familiar to Comcast's Xfinity TV app that will not count against their own cap...that they are claiming is necessary to prevent network congestion.
There are some, Im guessing quite a few of us that use hulu because we cant afford cable. I can barely afford internet. Hulu is seeing a surge of ad revenue because there is no need for a subscription. I would imagine this would cut that in half for them, any who says otherwise is a damn lie. Dont drink the cool aid hulu, fight them bitches in court.
On the rare time I might want to watch a baseball game, I'll just go down the street to the bar.
In my state, people who go down the street to the bar can't bring their kids with them.
Political talk shows? Over the antenna every Sunday.
"Becky" (name changed) is impatient and can't wait for Washington Week on Friday or Meet the Press on Sunday. How do I convince her to give up watching what amounts to her favorite soap opera?
Sports over the antenna.
Monday Night Football (NFL) is exclusive to pay TV, and I'm told there isn't nearly enough NHL coverage OTA.
And talk shows are all over the internet for free.
"You mean I have to sit at my computer and watch them?" "Becky" (name changed) is not willing to buy a second computer for the living room. And she's too busy with work and with caring for her elderly mother to seek out new talk shows; she wants the ones that are familiar to her: "whatever's on Bloomberg", "whatever's on C-SPAN", and "everything on MSNBC that doesn't have Chris Hansen in it".
Or via AM Radio
Our radio market has only the right-wing AM station, not the left-wing AM station, and Becky is a Democrat. She used to listen to NPR in the morning while getting ready for work until she found out that she can connect an FM transmitter to her cable box's audio output, after which point she started blasting MSNBC's Morning Joe Brewed by Starbucks on an unused frequency.
Any movie budget over $5MM is for candy CG, splosions or "names", none of which makes a movie worth sitting still for.
When they put money into making intelligent, mature works that model sanity instead of digital opium, eye candy, the celebration of dysfunction, and the same g-d movie over and over and over again, maybe I'll be in. But nine figures on a resource warrior going interracially native? Pass.
/. -- the Free Republic of technology.
In related news to yesterday's announcement that HULU will require Cable subscriptions, ATT and Verizon announced today that they will require land lines for all of their current cellphone account holders. Seeing an opportunity, the US Post Office as also struck a deal with many E-Mail providers to require their users to post a letter for every E-Mail they send.
If they do that, then we just will watch Netflix, Crackle, or something else. I'm done with Cable, the shows suck and are repeated over and over..... and over.....and over.... Reality TV ( or so called Reality tv) sucks.. I could care less about the Real Housewife's of New Jersey, Jersey Shore, .... screw them. The reception sucks, the companies rape you.... Hulu does this, they will end up going out of business.
They're insisting that you subscribe to the *competition". in order to get their service? in other words, people who "just" want Hllu, and nothing else, are out in the cold? I use internet to watch TV, as a 'No' frills TV package without even adding 'Net is near 100$ now, $150 -175 if you add internet.. Is Hulu free in the US, or something, why they would do this?
After all, we do have to prove that we own a horse and buggy before we are allowed to ride the bus.
If new technology was allowed to replace the old, it would be madness! Just think--all those people who make a living by delivering ice to our houses so we can keep our food cold would be out of a job!!
Too much on demand is going to choke the Internet.
and now we know the *real* reason comcast bought nbc (and with it, a significant stake in hulu)
If i had cable I wouldn't need to use streamers like Hulu. You can't get cable out in the country (not that I would subscribe) it is satellite or digital antenna. I won't subscribe to satellite ether. Why should I pay for commercials and a bunch of channels I will never watch. I just started watching Hulu in last couple of months kinda liked it other than killing my bandwidth, I didn't know about Hulu before And it looks like I won't need to watch Hulu in the future. So long Hulu.
Any decent download speed requires a contract. Who is it with? Unless you live in Podunk and have a broadband connection provided and paid for by people in urban areas gratis via the Rural Electrification Act, you get it via the AT&T spin off phone company or the cable company. Many seem to believe the cable company is the greater evil. My personal experience is that the phone company is far, far worse. That said. This whole line of comment is off topic. It costs a lot of money to produce content. The people that produce content do it to make money. Ads, etc are how content is paid for Life isn't free. Happiness is not a purported fundamental right. The pursuit of happiness is. Quests are never easy
If I have cable TV then why would I need Hulu??? I could just buy a DVR.
Or I could just download it or watch it on netflix.
Sounds to me like Hulu is committing suicide.
You Insensitive Clod!
First of all, I suspect that Hulu (or at least the part of Hulu not owned by Comcast) doesn't want to do this, but is being forced to do so by old media content providers who make A LOT more money from cable subscriptions than they do from advertising.
Back in the days of broadcast, TV was funded almost entirely by advertising. The more eyeballs a station or network could put in front of the screen, the more profitable they could be. Adjust profit up or down depending on the probable make-up of the audience and the cost of producing or acquiring the shows, but still a pretty simple model.
If that was where we were today, giving away shows on the interweb would be a no-brainer: worldwide audience, combined with incredibly specific knowledge of exactly who is watching.
But when cable TV came along in the 80s, and especially after deregulation in the 90s, it changed the business model for most television programming. Channels (really, the networks that own them) are now given a fee per subscriber per month by the cable companies. This could be anywhere from a few pennies to over $4 (for ESPN) per month. Per subscriber. This is where the majority of the money you pay for basic cable goes. The cable companies earn their profits from selling premium channels and renting their crappy equipment to you, and from usurious late fees and re-connect fees charged to poor folks.
On a nationwide basis (about 50 million subscribers), these fees are enough to fund a lot of crappy reality/news/sports/talk programming, and even some real Hollywood-style original series. The ads sold during these programs are important, but nowhere near as important (in most cases) as the subscription fees. Those fees are money in the bank, every month, *whether anyone actually watches or not*. You can only sell ads if someone is likely to be watching.
Now consider the fact that an decent old media company (take Fox for example) is going to own multiple different cable channels. For each one that they can convince cable companies to carry, they get paid per subscriber per month. We're talking hundred of millions of monthly income whether or not anyone actually watches.
So when they see Hulu and Netflix disrupting that profit stream, of course they freak out! Seriously, if cable subscriptions in the US drop by 50% in the next three years, its going to cause a giant sucking sound in the bank accounts of every company involved in cable television. If advertisers figure out that no one is watching the shows, same thing. And if cable companies learn that no one is watching the channel... the channel gets dropped. For all of those reasons, they will fight internet streaming tooth and nail.
You're going to see most of these media companies fail, of course, and good riddance. Anyone who thinks we need The History Channel is welcome to spend $30/mo purchasing Time/Life DVD box sets for the rest of their life.
I don't have cable, but subscribe to HULU Plus. I came by HULU because the Vizio tv I purchased came with a HULU App. After viewing their content online, I decided to purchasing the streaming service so I could watch comfortably on my tv. I especially got a HULU subscription because I became enamored with Kdramas. But be forewarned HULU, if you require me to have a cable tv subscription, I will drop you like a hot potato. Plus I hate all the commercials. I really don't need you right now because I eventually got a subscription to DramaFever (where you get your kdrama content from) and can stream the kdramas directly from my laptop to my tv.
"But the move toward authentication, which could take years to complete, will make cable companies happy because it could slow cord-cutting by making cable subscribing more attractive." - Except to the next generation of viewers that here their parents screaming about the cable companies constantly screwing them. Its amazing how many companies thrive in this country by NOT listening or reacting to the needs and wants of their customers. If they don't start evolving soon the cable dinosaurs are going to have their worlds hit by an asteroid they helped create. What should be incoming consumers for their goods are going to become incoming buyers of only their internet solutions and other companies like HBO, STARZ, Cinemax, and others are going to be hamstringed by agreements Big Cable forced them into. This will all end with tears.