Streaming TV Isn't Cheap; Hulu May Start Charging for its Services in 2010
Streaming TV Isn't Cheap; Hulu May Start Charging for its Services in 2010
Posted 10/22/2009 at 2:09pm
| by Bart Salisbury
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It’s sort of fun watching media moguls--the sharpest knifes in the drawer--thrash about when trying to figure out how to make the Internet pay. First it was charge for content. When that didn’t work it was give content away, but cram it full of ads. That didn’t make enough money, so now we’re back to charging for content. (Which didn’t work the first time.)
The current star of this hit parade is Chase Carey, Deputy Chairman of the News Corp. According to Carey: “I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value.” Thanks Dad, but all I want is watch some Office reruns; maybe a little Family Guy. Carey continued: “Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.” Time, it appears, for Hulu to start charging for the value it provides, so we’ll better appreciate it.
Free, however, isn’t dead yet. Claire Atkinson, of Broadcasting & Cable, suggests that Carey’s plan may be to reduce the free content and add some pay-to-view options--content specially created for the Internet or television previews. Atkinson offers the chilling possibility of American Idol previews. (Hasn’t that show done enough damage to the American psyche?)
The humor in all this is the powers that be in the entertainment industry see the Internet as a gold mine. One they can’t, no matter how hard they dig, get in to. It just might be the Internet has created the possibilities of new revenue models which don’t neatly mesh with the ‘grab all the money you can by controlling all the content you can’ models that currently exist in the analog world. The music industry learned this the hard way. Perhaps it’s a lesson others can only appreciate by first paying a price.
Image Credit: Hulu
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RAMBO
October 24, 2009 at 5:45pm
Lose U, go ahead HULU, and you lose me and most smart people!
Your eyes see only $$$$ = HULU user 0000
JDK
October 23, 2009 at 5:14am
Oh no....I guess we will all have to go back to viewing all the free shows from the individual network sites again.....not to mention P2P.
Charge away Hulu. I think they may be overestimating themselves.
Walnut
October 22, 2009 at 3:54pm
Not going to happen unless NBC wants to see their ad revenue swirl down the shitter overnight. I don't care if there are paid plans available so long as I can get a service similar to the one currently offered for free. I'd have a hard time believing they could be so daft as to not understand that this viewpoint is reflected in the majority of their users. But hey, I've been wrong before, and I certainly wouldn't put money on the intelligence of NBC execs, especially after that comment about wanting to make consumers better appreciate the "value" of their "content."
davidflory
October 22, 2009 at 3:13pm
Thats what people and families will say and do...turn off Hulu and find the content elsewhere for free something else like TiVo it, DVR, DVD burner, or even dust off the old VCR and record the shows again to watch later. Hulu will either go back to free or die like the rest....LOL
aviaggio
October 22, 2009 at 2:44pm
Seriously, these "geniuses" just don't get it, do they? Hulu is successful because it's free. Why would I want to pay to watch TV shows I can watch over the air for FREE, in crappy resolution, on my PC, and deal with the aggravation of streaming??? For free we deal with it. But to pay for it? Not gonna happen.
These idiots need to stop looking at the Internet as some kind of cash cow. It ain't.
nekollx
October 22, 2009 at 2:50pm
M-O-N-E-Y
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
nHeroGo
October 22, 2009 at 2:35pm
...but it is a good way to save on bandwidth.
Charge $25 per month and watch the user rate go down to zero.
Did anyone say that Hulu is unappreciated? This is backwards-talk.
xs0u1x
October 22, 2009 at 2:17pm
not surprising at all. it was only inevitable that they would start charging eventually.
nekollx
October 22, 2009 at 2:34pm
wake me up when this crashes and burns again
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
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