We’re getting back to that old saying, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” with news of Hulu’s possible plans to charge for at least some content. So one of the biggest advantages (and reasons for putting up with poorer video quality than broadcast/cable) just might be going away. According to an article in dailyfinance.com, News Corp’s chief digital officer:
envisions a future where at least some of the TV shows and movies on Hulu, the premium video site co-owned by News Corp., NBC Universal and Disney, are available only to subscribers.
If this is in fact the direction Hulu is going, it definitely would put a dent in the number of people interested in Hulu. The exception might be if they really are considering putting Hulu on a set-top box or other CE devices. Dave noticed an article stating Roku might be getting Hulu on their media player and there have been several rumors of Hulu coming to the XBox 360. I can see a paid model being more palatable to the owners of Hulu than the current free for all.
I kind of hope this isn’t true, but it probably is the future. Newspapers, TV and other online media is very likely moving towards more paid or at least subscription models going forward and this goes follows that trend. Put Hulu in high definition or at least much closer-to-HDTV quality, put it on as many CE boxes as possible like Netflix has been doing, and I think it just might work. (via MissingRemote.com)
Check out more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media at Geek Tonic.