Hulu.com is a free online video service-For Now
News Corp., one of the co-owners of the site, has confirmed the rumor that it intends to start charging fees at some point-most reports say Hulu will start charging a user fee in 2010.
The Wife found Hulu, then Gubba, then Channel 131-while I love TV as much as the new person who grew up in front the set, I am not all that fond of the crappy video quality I see on my ever more antiquated computer. Still, free TV is what we have all come to expect.
When the giant satellite dishes first started to show up,it was easy to get a descrambler box and help yourself to all those free stations falling from the sky. The good people who ran the satellite networks called this theft, just as the good people who make all manner of media now call bit torrents and other P2P networks theft.
Free Tv has been available online for some time and is not likely to go away. But Hulu was slightly different, as Hulu is legal and supported by the people who hate all other forms of online media distribution.
I don’t think I will be paying for Hulu, but if I did pay for Hulu I would expect them to remove the commercials from the programs. I have never understood how cable gets away with this, and it would be baffling if Hulu did it.
Not everyone is unhappy about Hulu going to a paid use model, if they were also able to improve Hulu usability and broaden the scope of the programs offered. But the bottom line is that most internet users like everything they find online to be free. So do I.
Hulu charging a fee is just the latest example of a good website that couldn’t figure out how to make money. For every Google, eBay, and Amazon there a dozen Pets.com, Flooz, and Webvan. Hulu isn’t dead yet, and may well come out as one of the online winners in the end-but charging for it’s content is going to loose it a good deal of it’s current users.
There is something familiar about the model of giving the product away for free until your hooked and then charging for it. TV is the opiate of the masses, isn’t it?
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October 23, 2009
Tags: current events, money, movies, tv Posted in: current events, fun, money
2 Responses
Hulu looks really good to me, from what I can see, but since I am in Canada I can’t use it. I wish they would change this1
Amazing post very interested. I am going to bookmark this blog. Thanks:D
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