
Hulu.com: A new way to watch TV (2008) - prostoalex
http://archive.fortune.com/2008/03/05/technology/hulu.fortune/index.htm
======
wand3r
Hulu is a legacy network company and it is absolutely terrible, it disappoints
me that so many support it. It is primarily owned by legacy companies (NBC,
Comcast, ABC, Disney, 21st Century Fox) and shows commercials even to premium
users. I haven't looked at it in a while but it used to put shows up slowly
after they already aired and halfway through the season start removing
episodes.

I hate it and it still supports this absurd legacy idea that if you pay for
content the cable companies should still be able to sell your time (and your
data) to advertisers.

~~~
djrogers
Sounds like you're more upset about who owns Hulu than any real experience or
issues with it. They've had an ad-free version for quite a while now, and most
shows are up immediately after they air and stay up all season.

There are a small handful of exceptions (example: out of all the shows I
watch, one of them has a commercial, and it's only a single 15 second one
before each episode and one other show only keeps 5 episodes at a time live),
but for $12/mo it's still a great value compared to what you'd pay to your
cable company.

~~~
skellera
I have a legitimate reason. Whoever designed their app ui (iPhone, not sure if
android is the same) needs to be fired. It’s horrible to use.

~~~
mattmaroon
It's bad on all of them. They made stuff you want to do often (like see
previous episodes of a season) take multiple clicks just so they could fill
the page with images. That's especially annoying on a non-touchscreen device
like Roku.

It's visually appealing but could be much more functional while retaining much
of that.

Netflix is more functional in some regards but I still feel overwhelmed by the
selection with no way to sort through it that makes sense to me. They have so
many shows, so many nonsensical ways to categorize the show, and no ratings
anymore to tell me whether it's worth it. They often move things around in
nonsensical fashion (my biggest complaint is that "continue watching" is
sometimes at the top, where it should be because it's almost always what you
want, but then sometimes several rows down, with no discernible pattern.)

But once you get into your show it's better.

------
Sargos
My how times change quickly. I remember signing up for Hulu just to be able to
watch my TV shows on my phone. Now I subscribe to Hulu because I don't have
cable at all. I'm 33 and out of the 10 friends I'm thinking of right now only
2 still have cable TV and most of the rest of us have cut the cord.

I'm also on the edge of cutting Hulu as well as most of the limited TV time I
have goes to Netflix and HBO at this point. The major networks haven't put out
as much enticing content in the last few years.

~~~
megablast
So you don't have cable, but you have hulu, netflix and HBO? What is the
difference?

~~~
dclowd9901
For me, about $80 a month.

------
mariojv
I like Hulu, but I was surprised when traveling to find out it’s not available
outside the US at all, except for a “Hulu Japan” service. I wonder if there’s
a group of consumers that would pay a premium for a streaming service with
similar levels of content that worked regardless of IP-inferred geolocation.

~~~
cageface
This is the case for most streaming services. Pretty much the only one I've
found that works without hacks is Netflix, although their content varies quite
a bit from one country to another.

I understand this is due to licensing restrictions but it's pretty annoying
all the same. I'd happily pay for Filmstruck, for example, if they'd only let
me.

~~~
bubblethink
filmstruck, as in the new site with critereon? That was one of Hulu's main
attraction. How is filmstruck technically ? I checked it a few months ago, and
it was flash based, and no support for linux. Still the case ?

~~~
cageface
When I was in the US I was watching it via the AppleTV app, which serviceable
but not great. The content is unbeatable though.

------
post_break
Remember Joost?

~~~
styfle
I vaguely do but I seem to recall it was short lived.

------
drefanzor
Also, if you're a student, and have Spotify, they give you Hulu as a bonus.
(for $5 a month!)

------
koh912
there's room in the digital TV subscription business for netflix, hulu and HBO
to all thrive.

~~~
ghaff
Add in Amazon Prime streaming plus acquiring content in other ways. Sure,
there’s a market for some number of players but there’s a limit to how many
subscriptions any given household will buy.

~~~
foobarian
And Disney, don't forget Disney, especially if you have kids.

~~~
wand3r
Disney & ABC have a joint venture that owns nearly 1/3 of Hulu

