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Hulu Ends Free Streaming Service, Moves Free Stuff To Yahoo View (hollywoodreporter.com)
Hulu has inked a deal with Yahoo to provide free, ad-supported episodes of a range of TV shows. But Hulu also said Monday it will end free streaming service on its own platform as it is moving that to an all-subscription model. As part of its expanded distribution deal with Yahoo, which is launching Yahoo View, a new ad-supported TV streaming site with five most recent episodes of shows from ABC, NBC, and Fox among other networks. From an article on The Hollywood Reporter:Most of Hulu's free content has been fairly limited, restricted to what's known as the "rolling five," or the five most recent episodes of a current show -- content that typically becomes available eight days after it airs and is usually also available for free on broadcast networks' websites. For example, recent episodes of shows like America's Got Talent, South Park and Brooklyn Nine-Nine are currently available for free, while Hulu's slate of originals and high-profile exclusives remain behind the paywall. [...] Yahoo is launching the TV site a half-year after shuttering Yahoo Screen, the video service that offered up ad-supported episodes of original TV shows like Community, live streaming concerts and other clips. With View, however, Yahoo is focusing specifically on providing a destination for television to its audience, many of whom are still driven to Yahoo products via its highly trafficked homepage.
Even more than the name Hulu did.
I suppose Verizon will learn this the hard way.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
The networks have been trying to get something to compete with Netflix for years and fortunately so far they have failed miserably. Amazon is doing well but they had to tie their service to their Prime subscription as an add-on to get the traction they now have. Even so I watch Netflix original shows 10 to 1 over Prime. If the RIAA/MPAA/Networks get a foothold you know they will do everything they can to close it off and jack up the price.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
I used to use it when it first started. It was easier and of course, I felt that I was "doing the right thing" as opposed to torrenting for TV shows. Then they went to the paid model. Wait a second, I have to pay... and watch commercials. When was that 2-3 years ago? Stopped watching Hulu. I used to 'make fun' of people at work who were paying for this. They want you to pay and watch commercials?! Hell, I can put an antenna on my TV and watch for "free." So yea, what does their user base (paying that is) really look like these days?
I was thinking of this in terms of news the other day. I am an admitted news junkie. And I've noticed that I don't even bother with the NYT or the WPost any more. I just jump over those bookmarks. Instead I use free sites where I can use adblocks. Not that I have an aversion to ads, just don't need all that crap running on my browser. I even paid for Sling for a couple of months so I could get CNN. But dropped it, after realizing I was paying 20 bucks a month for CNN, just wasn't worth it. Instead, I watch France24, DW and Sky News. Why, cause they don't charge me. So I don't watch the BIG news casters.
My real point? Not sure exactly.... But I drop the big casters trying to nickle and dime me, and get the free options. When it comes to TV shows, the point of Hulu (I would think) for the consumer, was to offer TV in a legal and easier to use fashion than torrenting. I'm back to the point where it's easier to pay for a proxy and torrent. What have the streamers learned, from what I can gather, not much.
Are they going to continue to show ads on their PAID SUBSCRIPTION service? Even the more expensive NO-ADS subscription service that still sells ads?
Yes, they will continue to have ads on their paid subscription service. It's all spelt out when you sign up.
Also, yes, they'll also have some commercials in programs that are required to have commercials under their no commercials service. This is a limitation from the content providers, not with Hulu deciding they want more ads to run. The shows that this affects are listed during signup for the no-commercial plan.
From their help: "In response to feedback from our viewers, we started offering a commercial free experience on Hulu. For a small number of shows, however, we have not obtained the rights to stream commercial free and they are not included in our No Commercials plan. You can still easily access these shows with a short commercial before and after each episode with no interruptions during the episode. Specific shows that still have commercials accessible through the No Commercials plan will be noted throughout the signup, switching and playback experience. While the list of shows may change, they are currently: Greyâ(TM)s Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, Marvelâ(TM)s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Scandal, Grimm, New Girl, and How To Get Away With Murder."
Bolded by me. The wording is not unclear and they don't pretend everything will have no commercials. What you're buying for $8 is Hulu Plus, the library they have with the ability to stream with commercials. Adding $4 to the plan to remove commercials gives you access to the entirety of the "No commercials" package, which does not included a whopping 7 shows.
What does watching those 7 shows give you in practice? Under Hulu+ you'll have a couple commercials prior to each show, with some in the middle of shows. Under Hulu+ and No Commercial plan you'll have one Commercial before the shows, none during and one after. Then when starting the next episode you'll have another before that one. If you click "Next episode" it counts as stopping watching that, so you'll skip the after commercial and just need to watch the before commercial.
TL;DR: I dropped cable and picked up Hulu+ No commercials and Netflix and haven't been happier with my TV Viewing in a long time. The only thing missing is sports, but there are subscriptions available for NFL now too if you're willing to not watch live.
Do you Gentoo!?
Sorry, bittorrent is still the best service going.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
My question is - did anyone actually know that Yahoo previously offered ad supported network shows? I literally have never heard any reference to it prior to this story.