HULU to start charging in 2010...

[Data Holmes]

I don't see why they just can't do a split system. Free but with a bunch of adds, or monthly/yearly subscription with no ads...

I mean, it worked for TBBS, why not for Hulu?

 

[Dar70]

Oh I guess I'll have to become a pirate again. You can't offer people a service for free and then start charging, specially if there are so many free alternatives. They're just as dumb as the recording industry but worse because they know what the consequences of not having legal alternatives leads to.

Well thats not fair. Most of the stuff shown on Hulu is also shown on tv or available on dvd. So if you want it either buy it or watch it on tv. Hulu is a good site for watching a missed episode or a season or two of a tv show you may want to check out but not meant as a permanent replacement.(thats why they have ads about purchasing the dvds of certain tv shows) But if you cant wait for it to be on tv or purchase the dvd etc. Thats not Hulus fault or the tv or film studios.

Again it will suck that they want to charge for first run eps or even some older stuff. BUT that not a good reason to illegally download copies.

 

[ParticleMan]

The thing is, there are shows that I am now watching regularly during broadcast that I'd have never gotten into if I hadn't been able to catch up on the early episodes I missed thanks to Hulu...the broadcasts of those shows are going to lose a decent number of viewers that might get hooked after the first 4 or 5 episodes, but don't want to wait for those eps to rerun later in the year.

 

[bigdaddy]

Again it will suck that they want to charge for first run eps or even some older stuff. BUT that not a good reason to illegally download copies.

Yes it is.

This isn't the 50s where you can miss Leave it to Beaver for a week and be fine, you miss a week of many of the shows now you are lost. Plus it's not like there are reruns in the summer anymore. They used to show the last several episodes on NBC.com, Fox.com and CBS.com, the whole point of Hulu was for all of that to be in one spot. They then added some cheaper older shows no one cares about (Do they have Star Trek? That's free everywhere now.) and now they are gonig "We will charge!". That doesn't work, people will just download it, that's the point of Hulu, to have people watch legally with ads.

The easy way would be instead of having 5 minutes of ads have 15 minutes! Do they even bother with that? Nope.

So fuck them, if I miss an episode of LOST (or something like that), I will just download it like I used to do. I'm not going to spend $2 for the episode when I will buy the whole show on DVD in a few months.

 

[Mike Farley]

I like Hulu. I like having a single place to check in to catch up with that random missed episode of whatever.

But the only thing I regularly watch there is GLEE, because I work Weds. nights. I can watch that for free in Fox's website if needs be. And if I DID decide I wanted to pay for it, then I would rather give the money to iTunes and at least have a copy of the episode saved on my computer to show for it.

 

[KB24]

Nooooo!!!!!! More coherent thoughts to follow. See what the influence of Comcast has done!

 

[Mr Light]

I just saw my first ever hulu show on my sister's computer, yay. Wish I had cable internet! I like how there's only a single commercial, sometimes only 15 seconds. TV should do a bunch of 30 second commercials like that every 5 minutes. That way you don't just go to the bathroom and miss the ads and it plays to America's short attention span.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Everyone is trying to figure out what to do with web-based content, and how to best exploit it to their advantage.

This is because no one has figured out a way to get enough people to pay for online content to make it an appealing business for anyone other than porn producers and companies willing to settle for amounts of money so small that no one in Hollywood is interested in them.

Online viewing on sites like hulu are becoming more and more popular.

Yes, and their popularity crashes as soon as they try to charge a fee. People decide that instead of watching episodes of "Family Guy" they'd sooner watch five minute home videos of sixteen year old Asian-American girls demonstrating how to put on eye makeup.

Seriously. It makes no sense to anyone, but it's true.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I say charge away! Grab as much money as they can now.

Not like anyone outside the US is gonna miss anything...

Stupid Hulu.

 

[Brikar99]

Again it will suck that they want to charge for first run eps or even some older stuff. BUT that not a good reason to illegally download copies.

Yes it is.

...

So fuck them, if I miss an episode of LOST (or something like that), I will just download it like I used to do. I'm not going to spend $2 for the episode when I will buy the whole show on DVD in a few months.

Then wait a few months and buy the DVD. But to say that it's okay to steal it because you don't want to pay to watch it right away...

Well you might as well steal a sandwich from a man on the street because you don't feel like making the trip to the store.

 

[Yoda]

^ for the love of God will people ever get over the idiotic direct comparisons between theft of property and copyright infringement? It's so intellectually dishonest that I would expect it to show up about as often as the flat Earth argument.

As for paying for Hulu. Well, I wouldn't. Hulu kind of sucks. I don't particularly care for mediocre resolution delivered through the world's worst technology (Adobe Flash).

What's funny is I'm not really against paying for content, but the delivery system just isn't doing it for me. I pay 13 bucks or so a month on a Usenet subscription and I can have a nice 720p rip of just about anything that airs after an hour delay plus a 10 minute download. In a nice open format that supports surround sound, subtitles, whatever to boot! Remember, most of these shows air for free... and you are free to record them and edit out the commercials without watching them. It's fair use! That I let someone else do the legwork really doesn't make any moral distinction.

The last time I threw in a DVD I was treated to a damned FBI warning that won't go away for 10 seconds, followed by all sorts of crappy trailers that I couldn't skip for some reason, followed by a crappy unintuitive and slow menu to start my damned program!

The thing where they blocked the PS3 from connecting to Hulu was downright ridiculous. And does Sony add an option to their browser to spoof the user-agent as a workaround? Of course not. Because these companies are all in it together trying to strong arm you into doing what they want.

If they want to insult me as a consumer I'll go the pirate route with no remorse. If they can't offer a product that's any better than the pirate version (and what they offer is typically worse) then they won't get my money. The guys running the Usenet servers will, as they actually do a good job providing something of value with a reasonable cost.

 

[Roshi]

Fuck Hulu!

 

[Brikar99]

^ for the love of God will people ever get over the idiotic direct comparisons between theft of property and copyright infringement? It's so intellectually dishonest that I would expect it to show up about as often as the flat Earth argument.

OH. I'm SOOOOO fucking sorry. I'm not all up on the super-in-depth-technical language that differentiates two slightly different kinds of taking something without paying for it.



Get over yourself.

 

[Pilot Ace]

OH. I'm SOOOOO fucking sorry. I'm not all up on the super-in-depth-technical language that differentiates two slightly different kinds of taking something without paying for it.



Get over yourself.

It is an important distinction to note, if only because groups like the RIAA/MPAA/etc. are trying to perpetuate the myth that every instance of copyright infringement is and should be equivalent to the loss of a sale.

In reality, this digital age is full of much, much more nuance.

 

[bigdaddy]

Get over yourself.

I was thinking the same thing about you.

So get off your fucking high horse.

If i miss one episode of a show I watch EVERY week I'm going to go online and watch that episode, if it's no longer legal than I'll do it the illegal way. I will not wait months to watch one episode of a show that might be important to every episode after it.

Also the copyright laws are so badly written and out of date EVERYONE has broken them dozens of times. It has been illegal to tape music from the radio, or to tape TV shows and movies from your TV, people have done it anyways.

 

[TGTheodore]

There's a thread somewhere around here... I don't see exactly how they're going to get away with it, and I won't pay. They're just going to push people back into piracy.

Arrrrr! I not be payin' a single doubloon to watch me weekly Glee! It's back to the ship, me boys! And we sail fer the Land of Illegal Downloads!"

Ee-yeah ...

--Ted

 

[Starbreaker]

Well, it would me. If I don't get to watch Dexter I'm going to download it.

 

[BenRoethig]

If they're going to charge for extras like no commercials, that's fine. If they're going to start charging for all access, they and the television studios will find themselves losing revenue because people will go to other options. How about add a second commerical in the breaks instead?

 

[amdmiami]

I guess its back to surfthechannel for me

 

[Supreme Admiral]

Nooooo!!!!!! More coherent thoughts to follow. See what the influence of Comcast has done!

My thoughts exactly.

2010 will be their worst year. More and more people will abandon Hulu and going back to regular cable coming next year, it's inevitable to keep shows remain free on Hulu, that's where Comcast comes in, to me, they're very evil, worser than Disney.

For that, I'll abandon Hulu for good and going back to watch my shows from Dish Network. Thanks a lot, Comcast!