Hulu Realizing That Taking Orders From Every Entertainment Company Boss Isn't Effective
from the streamlining? dept
We've discussed in the past how Hulu really is in a somewhat impossible predicament, in that to be truly innovative, it needs to disrupt the classic TV business model. But the "classic TV businesses" are the ones who own Hulu -- and who want to cripple the service. We keep hearing that the folks at Hulu really do understand what they need to do to be successful, but they're seriously held back by their ownership. So it's interesting to see that Hulu is planning to downsize its board of directors, potentially getting rid of Disney's CEO and News Corp's COO in order to, as they say, "streamline decision-making." That's pretty clear code for "our board is killing us." Will be interesting to see if Hulu can actually get enough separation from its ownership to do what it clearly needs to do.
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Filed Under: board, disruption, innovation
Companies: hulu
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As soon as that comes in and they actually do it, I'll be one of the first to look at Hulu once again as a video source.
Until then, I am not watching their inconsistent ads, their disorganized sections for certain shows, or paying money to watch entertainment that is arbitrarily stunted (hint: read how some shows stop after certain seasons).
It was when the industries stepped up to stop them that Hulu really went downhill instead of allowing them to do their own thing.
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Nibbling on the hands that feed isn't a good idea.
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hmmm
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Re: hmmm
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Re: hmmm
GOD
DAMMIT!
Sigh. Gotta break the news to the spouse...ohhhh...
F U, SYFY!
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Re: Re: hmmm
That's what teh Goog gave me, so...crisis averted. And yay! I like this goofy little show.
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Good old Disney
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R.I.P. Hulu
As I stated with yesterday's post: those who own the content have no idea how to create a website to draw in the millions to the content.
To date: I've yet to see one successful website pushing "Hollywood" content... and we're now in 2011.
Shameful.
Perhaps Hulu can dissolve and come back as "Hulu Lite".
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Enough Is Enough!
As far as I am aware, Hulu was set up to compete with YouTube by offering people a legal alternative. For these stations to turn around and criticize them for doing what they were supposed to do is sheer stupidity. Your's obviously, Captain Obvious!
I'm going to talk about video on demand. I may put forward some ideas, which should be obvious ideas. But sometimes these entertainment industry bigwigs turn a blind eye to Captain Obvious.
People want TV shows and movies on demand. If YouTube is any indication, they don't necessarily want to pay for it. So give them video on demand with commercial breaks. But cut the crap and do it properly: Make it available worldwide, especially if a show is over five years old as there's little chance of a major network picking up a show for "first run" five years after it originally aired. Preferably, however, a TV series would be produced in advance and premiere world wide. Movies can stay at the cinema and then be available on a VOD service on the same day as the DVD release. People who like the movie will still go out and buy the DVD. People who download the movie never would have bought it in the first place.
Now, nobody likes commercial breaks. So let's give people an option to have a commercial free package. They would have to pay for it, of course. But people are willing to pay for something they want if the price is right and the service is good. See Netflix for a perfect example. And with the available technology there is no excuse for such a service to be bad.
If I had the money to license the TV shows, I'd do it myself! And although it would take me about a year to get a good catalogue uploaded, I could start it up without needing to buy any additional hardware up front (just down the line) - I could do it with almost any home computer. But, seeing as I am a nobody, I would never hear from them unless I splashed cash in their faces.
Basically, there are no acceptable excuses left. And the studios have no choice, really. It's give people a good service at a reasonable price or people will seek out alternatives, regardless of whether or not it is legal.
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the studios don't want change.
Now we have Hulu, which personally, I like and dislike, however irrelevant. Hulu is what the public wants, their 'OP' when they want it, instead of having to remember to 'DVR' it, or arrange their schedule around the airing. Limited commercials (actually, there should be NO commercials, because the broadcaster already paid the license to present the show via airwaves, and already got reimbursed via advertising eyeballs when the show initially aired), in an on-demand sphere.
The problem with Hulu is that it is based on 1970's broadcasting terms/rules/agreements/business models. It is yet another 'cable' device to them, to be used to gouge customers even further, for even larger profits, or in other words, another chance to f*ck the consumer. I believe there is no reason NOT to have advertisements ON the page while looking for your next episode of 'Pee-Wee's Playhouse', but not DURING the episode.
Speaking of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, how many episodes of this show does Hulu offer? I count zero. This is the flaw in the business model. As a youngster, I loved a BBC distributed show called 'Space: 1999', which was science fiction story about the moon breaking orbit from earth due to a massive nuclear reaction on the moon. The show aired between 1969-1971 for 2 full seasons of 24 episodes each. As an exercise, I searched legitimate retail resources, Hulu, Amazon, even eBay (shiver), and this quality British show is nowhere to be found. Well, not so impossible to find, all 48 episodes, in high quality were available on usenet, therefore I downloaded and archived both seasons for my own enjoyment.
My point is that the business models of today's use of the internet as a broadcast medium instead of a communications medium has left end-users like myself wanting.. The focus should be about diversity, and choice. Offering the 'customer' a variety of content, and not just the latest episode of 'American Idol'. This would spurn massive demand, and of course profits. If the broadcaster has already made money with advertising for the first airing, and then additional profit from syndication (in this case the BBC show was created and aired in Europe, and was then syndicated to the US because it did so well), then why is it so hard to offer the show on Hulu? I am not saying the broadcaster should not make a profit, just don't gouge the living sh*t out of me in doing so.
I agree with charliebrown, there are no acceptable excuses left, the studios have no choice but to offer a larger variety of content, going all the way back to my Space: 1999 circa 1971, at reasonably low cost, without commercial breaks during the episode itself. I am no longer a mindless cash-cow, expected to relent to the studios version of variety, time-table, and overabundance of advertising. I am now a customer, and if the studios do not wish to offer what the customer wants, then I will seek alternatives to satisfy my wants. Unauthorized file sharing is a result of this enormous gap in demand left by greedy studios.
/rant
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Re: the studios don't want change.
http://www.amazon.com/Space-1999-Anniversary-Megaset-17DVD/dp/B000P6R5TI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8& amp;qid=1300285404&sr=8-1
Space: 1999 has been available on DVD here in the States for about 12 years.
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ironically..
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Re: the studios don't want change.
Speaking of you notice now that a lot of networks actually play ads during closing credits of shows (meaning goodbye to listening to that cool theme song you like)? Opening themes aren't much better. Take Charmed for example, where you can clearly tell that after some point several seconds of the opening credits were cut out around season 3 or 4 (Eureka did the same thing about season 3, as well as The Mentalist.). And then you have shows that don't even have opening credits like Stargate Universe whose opening sounds more like a cell phone ring tone than an opening.
Also if you ever look at tv shows commercial free (like on a dvd boxed set) notice the length. Usually an "hour long" drama is more like 45min.
Speaking of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, how many episodes of this show does Hulu offer? I count zero. This is the flaw in the business model. As a youngster, I loved a BBC distributed show called 'Space: 1999', which was science fiction story about the moon breaking orbit from earth due to a massive nuclear reaction on the moon. The show aired between 1969-1971 for 2 full seasons of 24 episodes each. As an exercise, I searched legitimate retail resources, Hulu, Amazon, even eBay (shiver), and this quality British show is nowhere to be found. Well, not so impossible to find, all 48 episodes, in high quality were available on usenet, therefore I downloaded and archived both seasons for my own enjoyment.
I think most people have a show like. For me its Living Single. I don't know whether or not its on Hulu but one thing I know for sure is that it only airs in the wee hours and I've had no luck on finding it on DVD. But if I somehow "acquire" it by other means I'm the bad guy right?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpv8-5XWOI
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