Hulu.com: Insert Coin to Continue

[bicostp]

Long story short, News Corp. (who owns most of the content on Hulu) wants you to not get "broadcast quality" shows you get for free over the air for free on the Internet anymore.

It's time to start getting paid for broadcast content online. I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business

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The only way I can see a pay model working is if they give you the current selection of episodes and clips for free (who would pay for clips anyway), and offer pay customers fewer ads and a larger back catalog of material to choose from. (That's always been my biggest disappointment: they don't even have the previous season in its entirety. South Park Studios is doing what I wish Hulu would: every single episode, full length, high video quality, free to watch whenever you want.) The way I see it, people are going to steal the videos anyway (and there's nothing they can do to stop that), so why not officially put the shows up somewhere ad-supported? Over-the-air broadcast TV is ad-supported, right? They gonna make you pay for that too?

If they just tack an entrance fee onto the existing site and don't make any other improvements, then the site will die and everyone will go back to torrenting everything. (And unless they're Nielsen families, they aren't hurting ratings or ad revenue by doing that anyway.)

This is why we can't let Old Media dick around with the Internet.

At least we still have Fancast.

[palmertech]

If they try to make me pay for the current lineup, then I will be very sad. Even if they have ads comparable to the TV version, I am fine!

This would probably rank along with the fall of SeeqPod as website changes that made me sad. I just pulled out an old article of Wired talking with the Hulu people back when it was newly launched, and I swear, from all their "We need to evolve with society" talk, I never would have guessed they would sell out in the end,

[nitro2k01]

(who the screw would pay for clips anyway)

... from a moderator, no less.

[bicostp]

I copypasted my own post from another forum I go to. Jeez.

EDIT: There I got rid of the big mean pottymouth word. All the world's children are safe from one 4 letter word in the middle of a paragraph.

[palmertech]

Oooooohhh yeeaaaahh. I told you the BH mods were evil! Look, he posted a swear word!


Heh, just kidding. These days, at least.

You know, if I were Hulu, and I really needed the extra revenue, why not make people do a quick 20 second survey before their show will load? Start the buffer, and make them answer a few questions. The marketing info would be very valuable, in terms of figuring out who is watching what, demographic wise. After that, start the video!

[snowpenguin]

I used to use hulu quite a bit, now probably not.

They could easily do commercials just as long as you would see on normal tv and ads everywhere, and I'd still be happy.

[nitro2k01]

I copypasted my own post from another forum I go to. Jeez.

EDIT: There I got rid of the big mean pottymouth word. All the world's children are safe from one 4 letter word in the middle of a paragraph.

Actually, it's not that word that I'm reacting against, it's the silly wordfilter. It only works in one particular usage of the word. Even Ben "bypassed" it by writing MOTHERF'ING. I bet he wrote verbose form of the word, and edited it after he realized that BILL PAXTON screw PINBALL didn't look to good. (No, I won't stop nagging you about that wordfilter when Iget a chance.)

[tom61]

I kinda was expecting Hulu to get bogged down in problems of how they make their profit since the start of it. Not an easy thing to transition between models. Many things I like watching on Hulu aren't availible free over the air, but stuff you see only on cable typically, and at least one show I've watched is from a network my cable company doesn't carry. Your cable or satellite company pays for the channels it shows, so it makes sense that they'd want to try forcing that model onto the internet.

Then there's the ads saying 'Save money by dropping cable TV and just use Hulu', which has probably caused a few cable company execs to panic on top of it all.

[vskid]

I think it should be either ads and free, or pay and no ads. One of the things I hate about cable/satellite is that you pay and have ads, which are just as long as the ones on free over-the-air TV. They should also make it not flash based, so I can watch on my crappy computers without it activating "slideshow mode".

[Metallica Man X]

Yeah, pay without and no pay with....that was the way it used to be. Many moons ago, cable and satellite TV both had no commercials at all. But then, someone decided that they weren't making enough money, and they decided to start putting ads on air too....

[bicostp]

It used to be one company would sponsor the production of an entire show. Camel cigarettes sponsored Abott and Costello's radio show, Winston paid for The Flintstones (video proof here)... Huh. A lot of the big tobacco companies sponsored media that has been deeply entrenched in popular culture.

Of course now there are so many bloody commercials it's hardly worth watching TV anymore. Look at the SPike TV Powerblock shows, for example. They air for a half hour. If you cut out the commercials, you're lucky to get 17 minutes of actual show. Cut the title sequences, "after the break" bumpers, and the big product endorsement segment at the end of every episode, and you probably have about 10 minutes of actual show. Network TV is pretty bad now. A half hour episode of MASH from 1982 on DVD runs about 27 minutes. A half hour show from 2009 is about 19 minutes long. And what little they produce now for the most part isn't worth watching.

I mostly blame all the "sub-assistants" running around soaking up money, and the SAG for gouging salaries sky high.

[Triton]

Actually, it's not that word that I'm reacting against, it's the silly wordfilter. It only works in one particular usage of the word. Even Ben "bypassed" it by writing MOTHERF'ING. I bet he wrote verbose form of the word, and edited it after he realized that BILL PAXTON screw PINBALL didn't look to good. (No, I won't stop nagging you about that wordfilter when Iget a chance.)

we USED to have a more intelligent sounding wordfilter, but that got changed in favor of the current one i agree that it sounds stupid but perhaps posting something in regards to the wordfilter in the suggestion box would be a better place, that IS what its for after all

[Tracer9]

My biggest problem with cable is that I'm paying for ads and the ability to watch what they want me to watch when they want me to watch it. So what benefit do I get when I just end up buying the good shows on DVD anyway?

So I prefer to watch on the internet where I can choose what I want to watch. If there were a site that had every show I liked, in its entirety, ad supported or not, I'd go to that site and watch my shows there.

And now that I think of it, there is just that. Torrent search engines.

[bicostp]

we USED to have a more intelligent sounding wordfilter, but that got changed in favor of the current one

I copulate changed it again.

[vskid]

we USED to have a more intelligent sounding wordfilter, but that got changed in favor of the current one

I pfargtl changed it again.

Why can't we have it use clever words like it used to? Like they were when discussed in this thread.