Hulu Plus opens to all, Dish says it's destroying TV industry

[Emil]

Hulu has announced that Hulu Plus, the $9.99 per month subscription TV service (unfortunately the $5 rumor has yet to be verified), is now open to everyone in the US. The service has been in a limited public preview since late June. "As we scale our infrastructure throughout the preview period, we want to open the service to a larger subscriber base," the company said in a statement. "To make it easier for people to try out Hulu Plus, you no longer need an invitation to subscribe."

In addition to having to request an invitation to join the service, Hulu Plus was available only on your computer, a handful of Samsung connected TVs and Blu-ray players, and Apple's iOS mobile devices. It is now coming to Sony's PS3 game console as well as newer Sony Bravia HDTVs; an upcoming update to the Hulu Plus PS3 app will enable access for all Playstation Network users. Hulu Plus is also expected to come to Roku set-top boxes this fall and TiVo Premiere DVRs later this year. Microsoft's Xbox 360 console will get it early next year.

In related news, Hulu's model of giving users access to TV shows shortly after they air is bad for the TV industry, according to Dish Network VP of Online Content Development and Strategy Bruce Eisen. Eisen would prefer that all online video content be locked up behind the industry's TV Everywhere initiative, with Hulu content only made available for free a month after it airs.

"If I can watch Glee tomorrow morning and I don’t have to pay a pay TV service – I think that's bad," Eisen said during a panel about cord cutting at the Streaming Media West conference, according to GigaOm."If people decide that they don't have to pay for pay TV, then one of the pillars (of the TV industry) starts crumbling."

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/40990-hulu-plus-opens-to-all-dish-says-its-destroying-tv-industry.html

 

[CyberChrist]

My heart breaks for this poor executive who is too lazy to try and innovate compete with Hulu. If I was a dish shareholder I would be awfully upset that an executive so whiny and willing to surrender was working at my company!

 

[Chazz]

Companies that do not adapt to new technology die. He can go cry with the Blockbuster VP.

 

[grimm808]

This is great news! Fierce competition with things like Netflix and Hulu may help cable to lower prices in the future, because I know alot of few people who are just getting rid of their TV service, as well as phone lines since everything can be operated through their broadband connections.

 

[Ranger12]

Well, I'm tied to my tv for now until they start making motorsports such as formula 1, motogp, and the AMA series available on there. I have feeling that's not happening anytime soon though.

 

[z71kris]

Maybe the CCs and Dcs will lower their prices...that would be nice...

 

[mikeusru]

CyberChrist said:
My heart breaks for this poor executive who is too lazy to try and innovate compete with Hulu. If I was a dish shareholder I would be awfully upset that an executive so whiny and willing to surrender was working at my company!

Totally!
The lack of thought towards innovation is astounding in some people, especially when they are working in technical fields. I guess TV is pretty old-school though, and guys like this are the ones who will get fired soon. Now that we have the technology to watch our shows whenever the hell we want (seriously, you think being able to watch SNL on sunday is bad for the show?), companies need to figure out a way to make money on the new system instead of trying to kill it off. Also, a big reason websites like Hulu were founded was to give computer users less of a reason to pirate TV shows. Take it away, and many people will resume downloading all their shows from bittorrent again - goodbye, ad revenues.

 

[Guest]

That exec is the worst. You never had to pay to watch Glee or any other nationally broadcast show. All the shows that you actually have to pay to watch aren't available on Hulu anyway, ie anything on Showtime, HBO, AMC, etc. Does he even have any clue as to what service offerings he company really has?

 

[gwailo247]

That's funny, I can watch Glee for free without paying for cable or dish. Is Eisen a complete *****? Let me guess, he came over from the music industry:

"THERE MUST BE A MIDDLEMAN!!!!!"

I guess its not enough that I 'pay' by watching commercials on Hulu like I do on regular TV. I guess I need to pay into a cable or dish company too...

 

[mpribe]

Dish can complain all they want, but they may as well try and stop a freight train with their bare hands

 

[gLitCh32]

grimm808 said:
This is great news! Fierce competition with things like Netflix and Hulu may help cable to lower prices in the future, because I know alot of few people who are just getting rid of their TV service, as well as phone lines since everything can be operated through their broadband connections.

Agreed! I hope it helps to lower the cost, but I doubt it. Somehow the TV industry continues to raise their rates, and as long as people keep paying for it, they'll keep going. I don't pay for TV service because it's just too much money! There's plenty of content online to keep me occupied.

 

[vangrat]

As all, by its very meaning, implies everyone, I would like to state my displeasure at the title of this article. It should rather say, "Open to Everyone in the United States." As all would mean, open to everyone in the whole world. As the United States is NOT everyone, and therefore all cannot be said to be inclusive to this service.

 

[pacostrano]

Yes because we want to watch tv show anytime that we want to and in 2010 streaming is only starting.

 

[Relic]

Offer better packages then Mr Eisen, lack of competition keeps driving up prices in television and consumers have few options. Streaming services are the logical evolution of bringing content from the creators to the consumers and people are starting to realize this. Either evolve out of a middle-man role or fight it till you go the way of the dinosaur. Then again I don't think Hulu is the real streaming service you should worry about considering they cave to the slightest pressure.

 

[agissi]

Fantastic! I'm all for shutting the cable companies down. Their quality & service is horrible and their prices are high.

 

[ChrisG683]

I went to Hulu once, only found 30 second clips of shows, and never came back. Noone I know even speaks of Hulu. What is the big deal?

 

[matrix86]

ChrisG683 said:
I went to Hulu once, only found 30 second clips of shows, and never came back. Noone I know even speaks of Hulu. What is the big deal?

You didn't look really hard if you only found 30 second clips of shows. The homepage is really all that is, but there are a lot of shows and movies (older movies) on there.

 

[JMMD]

Boohoo Mr Eisen, go spend a weekend on your yacht with the record executives if you want some sympathy. I really hope this type of service becomes common and hits Comcast, Verizon, etc where it hurts.

 

[compu4]

Good. This should reduce my costs greatly. I don't watch most of my cable channels anyways. I only wish that Hulu would expand its selection to include shows that are not on the major networks.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

How is having new TV shows being on Hulu shortly after airing bad for the TV industry? Can someone explain this better? I don't understand how these paid subscription based online streaming services really work, but don't they pay the company each time one of their TV shows is watched? I would think they have some sort of deal to pay the companies making and releasing these TV shows to public TV networks. Say for example the TV show Family Guy is produced and paid for by Fox Broadcasting, wouldn't Hulu pay Fox a set amount for each viewing of one of the episodes?

This just doesn't make sense: "...have to pay a pay TV service – I think that's bad". What does that mean? People paying for cable, satellite TV services? What about free over-the-air TV? With Hulu people are still paying. How is paying Hulu not paying for the TV show?

 

[Recipe7]

an upcoming update to the Hulu Plus PS3 app will enable access for all Playstation Network users

YES! This has awesome written all over it. I loved hulu on the PC... I'll love it even more on the PS3.

 

[Jetatt23]

This is an excellent idea, and as many others are saying it's Dishes fault for not innovating a rivaling product to compete with Hulu Plus. DVRs, in my limited experience, are a pain because you have to go through and select the shows that you want to record and then later decide what to delete to save space for newer shows coming out. Hulu gets rid of this problem by making everything available.

Just to balance the argument out, though, if TV executives choose not to come up with a solution to compete with hulu, will the networks eventually not get enough live views to continue to receive money from advertising, discontinuing programs? If this slippery slope argument happened, there would be no shows for Hulu to present because the networks have failed, leading to another possible bailout from Washington? Just a thought, looking forward to getting this on my PS3!

 

[speeedy6]

Cable/Dish providers need to burn for all their greed. I never agreed with how they make tons of money off us and commercials...

If we only knew the numbers (perhaps that would make an interesting read)...
I'm sure the Internet will only take their place in due time but for now I hope they rot.

 

[miska_man]

As nice as it would be to have a super cheap subscription compared to dish/cable, I don't know if I would find it very easy to give up channel surfing. I guess I'll stick with the best of both worlds (minus HD) for now; UHF.

 

[dlen]

I hope that nobody will try to sue Hulu and this service will expand everywhere. We have similar situation with music industry where big music companies stick to old obsolete CDs with complete albums and don't see that people don't want to buy disc, they rather want to go online and get one or two singles.