
How Hulu Lost Its Place In a Netflix World - gaiusparx
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/01/hulu-lost-place-netflix-world/
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frossie
_with the exception of sports and certain “event programs”_

Yeah but that's a hell of a big exception. People are willing to pay a lot of
money for those.

My household "cut the cord" [we're Netflix-only, no cable/satellite/OTA] and
the only thing we miss are the sports - even if I had to pay $20 to, say,
watch an F1 race online, I'd still be way ahead of what I used to pay for
cable/satellite, so I would likely pay hulu (or whoever) for it.

~~~
iamwil
I'm hardly the one to pay for anything, but I do play for netflix. And at just
$15, it's a far far better alternative than paying for cable. I get to watch
anything, at any time that I want? It's the way TV should be nowadays.

the only downside is that netflix recommendations don't work too well for me.
Too often, I spend more time picking what to watch, rather than just watching
something.

~~~
roofone
The other downside is you only get 2 channel audio.

~~~
Psyonic
5.1 on the ps3: [http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/14/netflix-on-ps3-goes-
disc-...](http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/14/netflix-on-ps3-goes-disc-free-
gets-1080i-streaming-and-5-1-surr/)

~~~
roofone
Brilliant! (I just wish it was easier to tell which ones were in 5.1.)

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TomOfTTB
I'd like to see this statement sourced...

 _And studios, despite some hemming and hawing, would ultimately rather make a
lucrative — reportedly up to $100,000 per mid-season episode — deal with
Netflix than rely on middling ad revenue on Hulu._

$100,000 isn't that much. Put it this way. The show Two and a Half Men pays
its three stars a combined $3.2 million per episode. Another example is Big
Bang Theory which just made a deal for 3 more seasons in which the network
will pay $4 million per episode (and is probably making way more)

CABLE pays around $2 million per episode to syndicate the very shows Netflix
is offering $100,000 for (<http://tinyurl.com/48c5zo9>)

So $100,000 an episode is more a joke than a real offer that Hollywood is
seriously considering.

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isleyaardvark
This article (previously featured on HN) mentioned that Netflix pays much less
than cable: [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-execs-
privat...](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-execs-privately-
netflix-71957). I think the point of that statement is that Hulu pays much
less than $100,000 per episode.

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Legion
I own four set-top devices that support browsing and viewing Netflix streaming
content directly from the device.

I own zero devices that can do the same with Hulu.

This is the #1 reason Netflix gets subscription money from me and Hulu does
not.

~~~
harshpotatoes
My roku can stream both Hulu Plus (which also costs a subscription fee) and
netflix. I tried out hulu plus, but after the first commercial streamed in the
middle of my show, i stopped it and stopped watching hulu plus. I'm ok paying
for a streaming service, and I'm ok with free content having ads, but not both
at the same time.

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theBobMcCormick
What I love about Netflix streaming is that it completely severs the old TV-
viewer relationship of having to worry about "what's on now" and "when does my
program start". Since we started using Netflix streaming, we spend a lot more
time watching what we want to watch _when_ we want to watch it. Instead of
having to worry about having dinner done in time for your favorite program,
your favorite program now starts whenever the hell you're ready for it. :-)

I also like that I can start watching a series from the beginning, no matter
how long its been on. As an example, my wife and I are currently hooked on the
show "Weeds". It's been on for 6 seasons already, so trying to get into it
_now_ on cable would be...difficult. But with Netflix we've been able to start
watching from the first episode with no problems.

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giberson
Here's where Hulu lost me as a consumer, it was simply the decision to make
their premium service provide extra content and mobile features instead of
eliminating ads. Netflix wins because it spares me from advertisements. You
have no idea how much I'd be willing to pay companies [even on an individual
basis] to never see another advertisement of theirs again.

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ben1040
I can look at all the streaming content on Netflix and know it'll play on my
computer, iOS device, Xbox, TiVo, Roku, whatever.

Hulu, however, has content that is web-only. For example, I can't watch the
Simpsons on my phone, only on the web, even though I thought part of the deal
with paying for Hulu Plus was having it on other devices. Why pay for being
able to watch content on your TV when they don't permit you to watch the
popular stuff on anything but a PC?

And given what they did to Google TV users, I know that if it were technically
possible for Hulu to identify you were watching on a TV-connected HTPC and
block you for it, they probably would.

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edge17
These two companies don't do the same thing under the hood. Netflix has a lot
more time to do it's transcoding than Hulu does. Hulu gets their content from
studios and has to have a turnaround of hours sometimes, whereas Netflix can
take weeks to get something online.

Yes, there's a battle for the livingroom going on, and Netflix could start
building out the same infrastructure. But it's not trivial for Netflix to just
step in and 'steal' away Hulu's customers without first doing a lot of work to
lower their transcoding turn-around.

For now, both companies have their place because they're not providing the
exact same service to the studios.

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kirinkalia
I completely get why people love Netflix. But if Hulu can't be a serious
competitor, who will be? I don't want Netflix to be my only appealing
streaming option, and I don't want to pay cable operators a ton of money for
stuff I don't watch.

~~~
wmf
Apple, PlayStation Network, Vudu, etc.

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allwein
I'm waiting for netflix to start cutting deals to stream shows the day after
they air, a la Apple. I'd happily subscribe for $20/show to subsidize
additional costs on netflix's side.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Unless you only watch 3 shows, isn't cable with a DVR a better value?

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kgrin
I think it's $20/show per _season_ , whereas cable runs ~$60/month.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Oh, duh. Good point.

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blankenship
I've been a Netflix customer since 2002. Every time I attempt to use Hulu for
anything other than the handful of current TV shows I watch (Fringe,
Community, Chuck) I'm woefully disappointed in their offerings.

But more than that I'm frustrated by the UI and search. I don't know if that's
why Hulu lost its place in a Netflix world, but it's certainly why its losing
its place in mine.

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jinushaun
It's all been stated before. With Netflix I can watch anything I want whenever
I want on whatever device I want with no ads. That's worth paying for. You
can't get that with Hulu's limited selection and web-only viewing experience.
I don't mind missing out on current episodes because I have hundreds of
thousands of other stuff to watch. In the current episode space, Hulu also
competes with the networks themselves. ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, etc all have
their own streaming video websites.

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krosaen
I recently cancelled my netflix (streaming) subscription because the selection
isn't very good. Until I can watch the current a-list TV shows and movies, it
just seems like a constant compromise not worth making. Instead I watch hulu
or other online streaming for TV shows, and rent movies from amazon on demand
(much much better selection for recent releases). Then again, I have a mac
mini hooked up to my TV so it's no problem watching any internet streaming
video on it.

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cryptoz
As an Ubuntu user in Canada, they've both lost their place in my world.
Netflix is here, finally - 12 or 13 years later than the USA - but they don't
support Ubuntu. And Hulu's still constrained to < 5% of the world's
population.

There's so much room in this space to innovate, with Step 1 being LEAVE THE
USA! And Step 2: Use the WEB! Why can't we get rid of these proprietary
plugins?

Any company that does both 1 and 2 will be immensely successful.

~~~
PostOnce
It would probably cost Netflix more to add Linux support (and test it, and
continually support/update/test it for the rest of forever) than they would
ever make off of it, at this point.

And that's without the cost of advertising that feature.

I have always thought that if you choose to run Linux, you're smart enough to
figure out a way to get things to run on Linux that don't officially support
it. (What percentage of Linux users know how to program in at least 1
language, vs. what percentage of Windows users? 98% and <0.5%?)

~~~
bryanlarsen
Us Linux users are used to using unsupported/"use at your own risk" software,
so that definitely lowers costs.

Right now what prevents Netflix from running on Linux is Microsoft. They will
license PlayReady DRM but won't license it to run on Desktop Linux boxes,
citing some sort of bogus "security" issue. I would think that an XP box would
be much less secure than a Linux box. It's just a business decision
masquerading as a technical decision.

<http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/t/94992.aspx>

~~~
metageek
It'd be much easier on Linux to tap the video stream from the Silverlight
player. You could probably do it in userspace, with a modified X server, or
even something like Xnest. The only way I can think of for Silverlight to get
around it would be to talk to the GPU directly. (Even then, it might be
possible, with a virtual machine that installs a special GPU.)

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joelrunyon
Hulu started to lose when they started limiting the devices that could access
it. Ubiquity is the new exclusivity.

~~~
SteveJS
Or failure is the new success metric, when you are partly owned by a cable
company.

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darrenkopp
I think they need Hulu Plus on more devices, and then their current model
might work out better. I'm still waiting for it to be available for Xbox 360.

At the same time, I can't remember the last time I watched something on Hulu,
so maybe I'm not hurting for it like it would be if I didn't have Netflix.

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MountainDrew
Hulu lost me when they began actively blocking Hulu.com from anything that
isn't a desktop/laptop. My Android device has flash, but they disable their
site if you aren't on hardware that has their blessing. I'd still see all the
ads, so why make your customer's life more difficult?

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MikeCapone
Semi-OT: Has Netflix's selection in Canada improved since they launched? It
was kind of pitiful compared to the US.

~~~
gamble
It's still pretty thin compared to the US, particularly for television. There
haven't been any dramatic changes since the launch.

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drivebyacct2
Hulu lost it's place when it basically stopped working at all in Linux. Today
I tried to watch the latest episode of the Office. Even in Incognito mode (no
personalizations/extensions) the video never loaded, just the gray background
across the whole mid section of the page. In Firefox, it played halfway, then
skipped to the end-screen, and upon trying to replay, told me that "This video
is unavailable. If this message continues, restart your browser".

So I went back to plan A. TPB: "s07e12 The Office", and I was watching it in
VLC 7 minutes later.

