Is Hulu Doomed? NBC To Begin Offering Free Downloads
Duncan Riley
20 comments »
NBC will start offering its top television shows as ad-supported downloads this fall (autumn) from the NBC Direct website.
The announcement is a major setback for the NBC/ News Corp joint venture Hulu, which was originally set up to offer this very content. The announcement also follows on from NBC’s decision to discontinue offering its TV shows via iTunes by the end of the year.
NewTeeVee reported that shows to be offered by the service include Heroes, The Office, Life, Bionic Woman, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Initially the service will only include Windows Downloads; support for over devices, and Apple computers will be added lately.
We can’t deadpool Hulu just yet, but thing just keeps going from bad to worse for a company initially dubbed ClownCo.
… but thing just keeps going - Dunk
… but things just keep going - better
… anyways, Hulu will survive and make itunes obsolete! Only MS xBox media service is better!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
This is the only way things can go. The content providers will and must ‘cut-out-the-middle-man’. You will go directly to them for content, there is no compelling reason for it to be any other way.
The next step will be the content providers standardizing they way the provide content so that software and devices will be able to ‘tune’ the content.
Good job citing sources, Duncan…
You really are a shitty choice to have manning the post button.
http://www.centernetworks.com/.....-nbcdirect
I love it! The big stupid media companies can’t do in 10 years what three random dudes did in a garage in 18 months. Total train wreck. This is too funny to watch — I hope they keep trying.
What a disaster from a consumer perspective. There is no way I want to spend my time creating logins, learning interfaces, etc. for four different sites. Some smart group of techies will just create a metasearch business to simplify the process of getting your content. Read my full analysis here.
From the article: “Sorry Mac people, it’s only for Windows-based machines.”
In other news, shows will still be available about 2 hours after the airing, commericial free, compatible on Mac/Win/Linux, and FREE — thepiratebay.org
Umm, what about Amazon Unbox?
Duncan how on earth can you say that this is a major setback for Hulu when you have no knowledge about Hulu’s strategy?
And if you did then you definitely failed to incorporate it in this peice.
I very much expected this move when they split up with Apple. This is a good way for them to go. Execution remains to be seen.
@Alex, the problem is that no one knows HULU’s strategy. Also the partnership with FOX (a competitor) is very confusing.
Here is my post on this. Check out my thoughts:
http://abhishek.tiwari.com/200.....ld-you-so/
NBC Direct sounds like what collaborative effort across all network and cable channels could be. All the major networks need to commit to opening up all primetime programming. There won’t be one winner; all channels would walk away with a piece of the pie.
My thoughts on how a collaborative effort would work:
http://zakstar.wordpress.com/
Ughh…another ingenious idea from the marketing minds that brought you the idea that Studio 60 was a good show.
I get the whole spiting the Apple audience and your only successful delivery and profit generating method for your shows beyond DVD releases, but how is making them only Windows compatible a good idea? Oh right you wouldn’t want people watching your shows or anything. Can’t have multiple or universal formats everyone could watch it in.
You had no problem taking Apple’s money last year with product placements and iTunes ads all over the place, but now you’ve taken that ball and gone home and are playing in the house. Just remember, nobody can like a kid that never comes outside.
Where is HBO and FX, because network TV officially sucks.
I think they should rename back to ClownCo, because their strategy is a joke and it is too funny to watch.
So let me understand this, Nielsen Media Research reports that most video bought on iTunes is consumed on the PC, not the device, yet NBC is bad for stopping iTunes sales? Why? Because the iFans bought a device that severely limits their options with video?
NBC and Fox enter into a Joint Venture to reach 98.7% of the American audience via. Hulu — and it’s a trainwreck or the strategy is bad? Please explain? DOA I would love to hear why consolidating videos to make them easier to digest from a consumer stand point is a bad decision…
Syndicating content online for companies like NBC is a dicey business. You all seem convinced that NBC outright owns these shows and can do as they please. Quite the contrary, they must contend with the requests of content owners (production companies, executive producers, rights restrictions) before making any move. The consumer market at large is very uneducated on the entire process a broadcast company must go through to put content online.
Remember kids… you write a blog, so you’re smarter than a fortune 100 company.
I love free downloads! And I love Hulu too!
Who cares? Most TV shows suck!
JFC, you’d think you’d take the time to actually proofread something before you posted it. How apropos to have an article related to TV when it’s obviously amateur hour at Tech Crunch.