Hulu "Kicking Back Into Action" Says CEO, Adding New Content

cagraham writes "While rival Netflix dominated the news this summer with original programming and content deals, the only news from Hulu was a July announcement that they might be sold off. Parent companies Disney, 21st Century Fox, and Comcast seem to have decided against that now, and acting CEO Andy Forssell says they're 'kicking back into action.' The main take is that they've signed an agreement with the BBC to add show like Sherlock, MI-5, and Doctor Who, although the deal isn't exclusive, and the shows are already on other streaming services."

Shill service

[hguorbray]

They were probably hoping that they could diminish netflix (esp comcast) since they would all prefer pay per (every) view or non ala-carte bundles rather than a 'watch whatever you want for a low flat fee'

Netflix is one of the things that is helping keep the Media cartels at bay at this point and I am happy to have been a subscriber for the past 10 years or so and hope that Comcast/ATT get their comeuppance some day (but doubt it due to regulatory capture)

-I'm just sayin'

Fuck streaming

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously.

Why has nobody made a service that even comes close to piracy? 3 clicks. type one word. wait 10 minutes and i have a full movie i can watch on any device anytime i want. using any player i want. no connection needed after dl.

Nobody has even tried to compete with that level of convenience. I'd pay a couple bucks an episode or $5 a movie for that fast and that easy to use.

but nope. there is no legal way to do that.

that's just fucking stupid. you'd rake in BILLIONS.

"everything's just fine"

[globaljustin]

Hulu.com is doomed in its current incarnation.

Exclusivity was the game 5 years ago, before Netflix sort of cornered the market w/ userbase & began its successful 'original programming' venture.

Getting BBC 'content' that is already available on competitors, fee or not, is kind of sad, really.

Maybe Dr. Who is a big 'get' (look IMHO its shit scifi, but i don't know what people like)...maybe it'll boost 'clicks' by 20%...that's just polishing the brass on the titanic

the 'profit model' iceberg sunk Hulu.com a long time ago...we're just watching it play out now...

**if** the copyright holders decided to just dump their content onto hulu exclusively for free...that would change things, but that's virtually impossible

my prediction: hulu.com dies a slow sad death and gets bought by some Mark Cuban type for $1.2 Million in 5 years who uses it for MMA fights or something

Service is meh...

[pspahn]

For $6/mo you still have to watch ads, and the only real benefit you get is that you can watch a new episode of certain shows a couple days before the non-paying members.

On top of that, when we watch using the Wii, the interface is quite clunky. I'm not sure if they're doing a similar thing as Netflix where they have all these dozens of wrappers for different devices, but I can only assume they are to some extent. I'm sure Hulu on other devices is equally painful (though, on a computer it's actually quite well-done).

Netflix is just a way better value and it works better. I'm all for Hulu "stepping it up", but I'll believe it when I see it.

I still don't get it.

[seebs]

Hulu's options:
1. I watch shows which have ads.
2. I pay them money, and they still show me ads.

I am really not seeing the attraction of option #2.

Re:Fuck streaming

[camperdave]

Seriously.

Why has nobody made a service that even comes close to piracy? 3 clicks. type one word. wait 10 minutes and i have a full movie i can watch on any device anytime i want.

That only works for popular movies. I've had download times in days for some.

Doesn't get it

[EmperorOfCanada]

The bar has been set by piracy. If you want to be successful you must beat piracy. The key attributes of piracy are: Worldwide release, no commercials, no FBI WARNING screens, doesn't promote crap that people don't want to watch but you want them to see, doesn't charge too much, simple interfaces, doesn't upsell upsell upsell, doesn't try to extract continuous marketing information, doesn't use your product to try and support your 20th century business model, make it as easy for me to use your product (basically make it available on every conceivable device).

Netflix basically matches or beats nearly every one of these attributes. Hulu does not.

Re:As a US-only service

[egamma]

It's probably rooted in the fact that American commercials shown overseas won't produce any revenue. I despise Hulu because I pay monthly for service and still get commercials...and the interface sucks compared to NetFlix.

Then do what I do--vote with my wallet, and stop paying for Hulu Plus, and stick with Netflix. So I'm a year or two behind--so what? I can watch years and years of a single show, and then do the same with another show. I never run out of stuff to watch and never see a commercial. Why bother with Hulu?

Re:As a US-only service

[Joe Tie.]

It's ad supported, we're already paying for it by watching. The issue isn't paying for it, it's paying for it twice. It'd be fine if by paying money we didn't get commercials, but they still push those.

Re:As a US-only service

[formfeed]

Even if you're in the US, you can't watch certain shows on certain devices, such as XBox 360 or Roku. Their management lives in this 20 year old fantasy land where I'm going to go sit at my desk and watch something in my web browser.

No. It's exactly the other way around:
They know that most people wouldn't want to watch it sitting at their desk on their PC. They know that most people would prefer to watch hulu on their streaming device / android stick / whatever while sitting on the couch.

And that's exactly why the PC is free and anything that hooks up to a TV or media center costs money

Re:Linux != GNU/Linux

[evilviper]

GNU hasn't got a damn thing to do with it. GNU is just some crap userland tools which are trivially easy to replace with something else. The important part is X11/Linux.

The reason RMS insists on sticking GNU in the name is pure self-promotion, and he's a shameless blowhard.

Why Hulu is a US only service

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

Hulu may work fine in Canada for all I know, but basically I wanted to respond to the bitching about it being a US only service. There is an actual reason for this and it has nothing to do with "America hates your country" or "America is stupid". Foreign rights to American TV shows bring in a lot of money and basically Hulu only works for US viewers because somebody may have bought the rights to the TV show in your country and the deal prevents Hulu from letting you watch it because doing so makes you less inclined to watch on TV, where the rights were paid for. Since the foreign rights buyers might argue next time they need to pay less because Hulu is cutting into their viewers, the only way to protect the revenue streams is to do a "US only" policy for Hulu. Additionally there is some chance that actors, writers, etc. might have to get cut in for additional money if too many new distribution methods are found, so it's just makes it easier on everybody in the US side to have those restrictions.

Re:You have a laptop. Use it as your HTPC.

[tepples]

Are you really suggesting that someone deal with hooking and unhooking a laptop to a TV

It was Garth Smith's idea [slashdot.org].

when the TV already has a Hulu App built in

The Hulu Plus app built into your TV is defective by design because the owners of Hulu have allowed video owners to sell web rights and device rights separately.