That was short lived -- it hasn't been six months since
Boxee added one of its most popular features yet and now
Hulu is putting a stop to it. A real reason wasn't given -- big surprise -- but Hulu is saying it was at the request of the content providers. While no one really knows what Fox and NBC's objections are to Boxee, we're sad to say it actually kinda makes sense to us. Both media giants make most of their money from traditional cable and broadcast TV, and offering this content on your TV in a convenient way threatens the current model (read money) -- you can't say you haven't thought about getting Hulu on your TV so you could cancel cable. The real bad news is that we'd bet that this is just the beginning, and that every STB out there with Hulu will follow. Of course some of them won't comply, but either way it puts them in a bad situation. Hopefully this won't another trend and that the likes of ABC, CBS and Netflix don't follow.
[Via
Boxee Blog]
posted Feb 18th 2009 7:02PM
So when does this affect PlayOn?
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
I thought the embedded advertisements were helping pay the content providers. If they kill PlayOn too I'll be pissed.
Oh look there's been an update to uTorrent since the last time I used it. Arrrrrrg!
Man, this really sucks.... I just bought all the parts to make an HTPC EFiX box too.
I was getting all excited about sticking it to time warner since they started copy protecting all the content on every channel on my tivo. Bastards.
Well, I'll just have to torrent everything and not watch any commercials at ALL now. At least they were getting 3-4 in an episode with Hulu.
Shame Shame. It's their own downfall.
WTF?! Why did it is bust out my email as my name? Hello mods, could you please fix this before I have to nix this email account now?
Jeez.
These content providers can either make money with commercials or lose it without them. Its their choice.
But if they think by yanking Hulu I'll be forced to go back to traditional cable TV they are sadly mistaken.
I'm pretty sure NBC-Universal and Fox (especially with all their non-premium cable channels) get more money from Cable TV and Satellite providers than Hulu will ever give them.
Sacrificing their core business model for online delivery would be like Netflix dropping DVD rentals and going streaming only. 10 years from now maybe, but I'm willing to bet we will have a new president before any legal online media delivery service will replace traditional methods. Even when it comes to music, more money is generated via CDs than online like iTunes/Amazon.
"Both media giants make most of their money from traditional cable and broadcast TV"
Cable companies pocket most of the money from subscribers. I think networks should look to Hulu and Boxee as ways of cutting out the middle-man.
Damn that's dumb.
I really don't understand the attractive to Hulu. You see I have some called a DVR, VMC to be specific, and it records most of my shows and torrents supply the rest. Why would I subject myself to more commercials and lesser quality when my VMC gets the bulk of my content and and high quality (compared to what Hulu provides) commercial free torrent link is three clicks away in a RSS feed?
The attraction of Hulu and similar services is, they can be used instead of cable and satellite service, by people who otherwise don't have acceptable OTA reception or channel selection, saving consumers $50 or more per month.
Because most torrents of content that's also available on Hulu infringe copyrights, and are thus only available from dubious sources.
Hulu provides a legal, reliable, way to obtain content. Yes, there are limitations, and it's utterly bizarre that there should be restrictions on low-bandwidth stereo content that's been broadcast OTA in nice mid-bandwidth unencrypted MPEG2 streams with good audio, but it's simple, legal, and right there.
It looks like the content providers are a bunch of cretins though, if they think this is going to help the cause of legal, revenue generating, streaming, but what's new?
For me, quality is more important than convenience. Rather have CableCard Tivo or Media Center and pay the money than watch some stretched out 480p videon on a 40" screen or better.
But I can respect Boxee with Hulu integration. Makes an AppleTV almost worth owning.
You've all made good points, but I'm going to have to agree with David S. Until Hulu can provide audio and visual quality that rivals what I can get OTA or from torrents, I'll gladly continue paying $50 a month.
Hmm, I wonder if this could mean that Hulu has already signed deal with another set top company to provide this service.
Hopefully Microsoft via Media Center
The movie and television industry is exactly where the record industry was a few years back. I think video will follow the same path as music did. They will lock it down for as long as they can. They will change their DRM tune when critical mass is reached and the majority of people are are using P2P to download and bypassing the networks completely.
Makes perfect sense since audio and video always follow the same path. Just look at all the CD rental stores out there and how people spend as much on their surround sound as their HDTV -- not.
Leaving aside the differences in market, there's not much they can do at this point to drop DRM. Several systems, notably Blu-ray, mandate DRM use - you can't avoid using it even if you wanted to.
And, to a certain extent, I think this will damage Hollywood in the long term. With Managed Copy effectively dead, the only way people are going to be able to move content between devices in the increasingly medialess digital world is going to be by bypassing DRM, which will drive large numbers of people to sources that aren't supported by Hollywood. And if you can get some of your content from there, well, for a lot of people, they'll be getting all of it from there, as happened with P2P and music.
The end game is probably not the end of DRM, given they can't remove it. The end game is more likely to be online subscription services like Netflix taking over from hard media pay-per-movie models. Netflix will still use DRM, but instead of it being to protect Hollywood's content, it will be to avoid people sharing their subscriptions.
I don't have anything against subscriptions, but I do find the obsession with DRM and where it leads fairly depressing. CSS did virtually nothing to limit DVD ripping beyond criminalize those who were ripping DVDs legally. AACS and BD+ now appear to be in exactly the same situation. So welcome to the world you've created Hollywood, through your paranoia you're going to hurt your customers, and you're going to hurt yourselves, becoming increasingly dependent upon middlemen who can make or break you. Great move, jackasses. Couldn't happen to a better bunch.
If that is the case, I mean
ACTIVISTS PLEASE READ:
I would like for someone to start a grass-roots movement to show the content owners that they need to think about their actions. At the moment it's a completely one-way street - the paying public has little rights in the digital time we live in. When I buy an eBook, I have less rights than when I buy a paper copy - same for movies / music etc.
The only way that we, the people, will get traction is to hit the owners where it hurts - their wallets.
I would like to propose that a movement gets started to ask folks all over the USA to refrain from watching TV / buying / renting / streaming music, movies, etc for ONE DAY. It can even be a day when there's nothing on TV :). If we can show a blip on the sales charts, that is sure to catch the attention.
How can we get this going...