Posted on 06/05/2009 10:13:51 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Nothing free and awesome lasts forever. Case in point: Hulu.com. According to Jonathan Miller, News Corps.'s chief digital officer, Hulu may begin charging for some online content in the near future.
Hulu, which provides a collection of full TV episodes, movies, and video clips, currently is supported by its advertising revenue. But when asked whether or not Hulu will begin charging for content, Miller said that "the answer could be yes. I don't see why over time that shouldn't happen."
News Corp -- parent of Fox -- owns a sizable portion of Hulu, along with NBC Universal and Disney, so when someone like Miller says Hulu will probably charge for content, that means it is likely to come true. Miller does note, though, that his statements are his own opinion and not necessarily the Board's decree.
Given Hulu's monstrous rise in popularity, though, this news shouldn't come as a slap in the face to many people.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
Adios Hulu!
Yep, pay for view of HULU will end it pretty quickly.
Agreed, but then again, I think that this was Hulu’s intention from the beginning.
Exactly. I rarely watch my shows on Hulu but the good thing is that I DL my shows via BT so I can watch them anytime so its not exactly a loss. Bye Hulu..
Are they going to keep the commercials?
‘til your brain turns to mush.
Bye Hulu. Knew the free probably wouldn’t last. It was fun.
It depends on how much they intend to charge — because there are other sources for most of the content they offer.
And they will have competition from cable On-Demand and Netflix.
Previously, some networks tried to charge $2 per episode via online viewing, and they didn’t have much success.
That's the question. I think there are people who would be willing to pay, if there are no commercials. Many portals do it that way.
I just discovered hulu last week. It looked interesting but I never watched anything. I had forgotten about it until I just saw this thread.
I won’t be paying...;)
What if only “premium” content was paid?
Never mind. For me, I just dont want to go to the bother of setting up a way a site can charge me.
I was able, a few months ago, to watch the “mormon” episode of South Park somewhere. It had commercials but it didn’t bother me. I just turned the sound off and read some freerepublic stuff while it was on. Multiple screens and all that.
And there were not that many.
Considering Hulu hyperlinks to videos mostly offered on the website of the TV show, it’s pretty stupid to charge when you can pop over to abctv.com and watch an episode.
There are a few shows that aren’t clips from older shows (Welcome back Kotter), but the newer stuff falls off when it falls off the TV channel website.
Netflix charges $10 a month and you can watch a whole season of many TV shows. Hulu takes themselves too seriously.
bfl
That which is free will not be paid for. Even if the aliens stick a green tongue in my brain. That which is free will not be paid for.
I already pay for all the crap with my cable bill.
I guess i won’t be visiting Hulu as much in the near future.
ping
I just turned the sound off and read some freerepublic stuff while it was on. Multiple screens and all that.
I do that too. lol.
That could make it worth it.
What is 'BT'?
BitTorrent
That’s alright, I use netflix for most of my viewing online anyway. It is nice to have fancast(which is part of Hulu from what I understand)but I can do without it. I am already paying Netflix , and not very much at that, so why should I pay Hulu also?
And the ones you can't watch online on Netflix, you can have the DVD sent to your home. BTW, that 10 bucks includes unlimited viewing of the online movies and episodes that Netflix currently has available.
Yep, watching Malcolm X as we speak.
I don’t know why I am interested in him, but I am. He is a part of what is going on today. I feel it. Nation of Islam is a major part of this.
> What is ‘BT’?
Oh sorry. BT means “bit-torrent”.
I've tried a few bit torrent clients in the past but never have much luck.
It always seems to take a huuuuge amount of time to download one movie. I'm talking, 15-20 hours. And I have a very sexy PC with scads of memory and CPU cycles to burn.
That makes it sooo not worth it to me.
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