The landscape of television online is changing so rapidly, it’s hard to keep up. Since the announcement of TV Everywhere trials by Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Verizon has jumped into the mix, and AT&T has started testing its own TV portal site. Comcast’s Stephen Burke has also announced that the initial Comcast trial will go national in the next 30 to 60 days – a far more optimistic timeline than those presented at the TV Everywhere breakfast in New York last month.
That’s all on the good side. On the bad side, there’s word over at Multichannel News that Hulu is considering a new subscription model. It’s not surprising, but we may soon be paying to watch free broadcast TV channels online. Given that ads still don’t bring in TV-level cash on the Net, a subscription model makes sense. Don’t be mad. As Mark Cuban (rightly) rants, subsidized TV is not a constitutional right. Better to focus on getting the pay-TV providers to roll out their TV Everywhere services faster, faster, faster. At least we’ve already written the check for that content.
Having trouble keeping up? Don’t worry. It’s only going to get more chaotic and confusing for a while. But if I can ultimately watch my shows anywhere I go, I can live with that.
I am not mad just a little sad. My WHS box can grab torrents automatically and those files of course are commercial free and not subject to any of the vagaries of streaming that Hulu is.
I love Hulu, just not enough to pay for it. If they had entire series worth of shows available at the press of a button then maybe, but not for what is available on it right now. Of course the Networks/Studios would never allow complete series on Hulu since then it would eat up their DVD sales.
Also, I do not want to get my online TV through Comcast, Verizon et al. I would much rather cut out the middleman and go to the Networks, or even the shows themselves, directly.
Just bring it all to Roku and I will gladly pay a small fee to choose the channels that I want versus paying a big fee to watch what the cable providers decide and at the times that they decide.
two things
– I have TiVo DVRs – so the cable company broadcast model is not broken for me and I still wtach what I wnat and when I want. I record mostly analog so I can do the where I want part as well. HD has hit my buyin point though so the were I want will not be from my own moving around of large HD files. :)
– Hulu was great and fun – but they turned their business model into a completely annoying one only on the PC – hardly a where I wnat option and with that restrictive nature already shown they are not getting any of my money.
The problem with all these different services is the hassle of hunting them down. I just want a one stop shop