Photos
Kelly: Hey, Gabe
Gabe: hi kelly
Gabe: what’s up?
Gabe: what’s up with you?
Kelly: Not too much, but I just heard some upsetting news
Gabe: uh oh
Gabe: they’ve discontinued
Gabe: Gilmore Girls Insider Magazine?
Gabe: shuttering the offices
Kelly: No, that would be very foolish
Kelly: Of course not
Gabe: hmmm
Gabe: what could it be then
Gabe: that has you so upset i wonder
Kelly: Do you want to keep guessing or should I just tell you
Gabe: one more guess
Gabe: uhhhh
Gabe: the Taylor Swift song from the Hunger Games soundtrack
Gabe: ISN’T stuck in your head
Kelly: Oh dang, no but now I’m upset about THAT too.
Kelly: No, the thing I’m upset about is that YOU WILL “SOON” NEED A SUBSCRIPTION TO A CABLE COMPANY TO ACCESS THE CONTENT ON HULU!
Kelly: SOON MEANING WITHIN THE NEXT FEW YEARS!
Gabe: haha
Gabe: awwwwww
Kelly: That does NOT sound like an aww of respect.
Gabe: oh, god, yeah, no
Gabe: it’s not
Gabe: it was an absolutely derisive awww
Kelly: Well another thing that’s going to happen sooner with Hulu is that you’re going to have to wait a month after an episode airs to watch that episode
Kelly: ARE YOU MAD YET? ARE YOUR EYES OPEN?
Gabe: look
Gabe: everybody needs to grow up
Gabe: the fact that hulu even existed in the first place is ridiculous
Kelly: How is that true
Gabe: uhhh, because
Gabe: television is BIG BUSINESS
Gabe: and in general
Gabe: with BIG BUSINESS
Gabe: you do not give away your product for free
Kelly: There are ads, though. Someone is making money someplace
Kelly: Isn’t that enough???
Gabe: hahah no
Gabe: i mean
Gabe: no one wants to read a chat
Gabe: about how the sausage is made
Gabe: but on-line advertising revenues compared to broadcast revenues
Gabe: is basically the difference between
Kelly: ZZZZZzzzZZZZzzz
Gabe: revenues and no revenues
Gabe: there might as well not be any advertising on hulu
Gabe: be serious
Gabe: you can’t pay for an episode
Gabe: of Big Bang Theory
Gabe: with a 30 second Chevrolet pre-roll
Gabe: i feel like we’ve talked about this basic subject before
Gabe: but in general, while i obviously enjoy and participate in the modern convenience of getting what you want whenever you want it at no additional cost
Gabe: it is just not a sustainable model for anything
Kelly: Sure
Kelly: I agree
Gabe: and people’s entitled and selfish belief that this is just the way things should be is ridiculous and stupid
Gabe: if you don’t want to pay for it that’s fine, but you shouldn’t expect that you just get to have it either
Gabe: the way the world always worked up until, what, 2006 or whatever, is that if you wanted something you had to pay for it
Gabe: and the reason it changed is NOT because of some kind of enlightenment
Gabe: of a better system
Gabe: it’s simply people being assholes about it
Gabe: (myself included. just kidding. never illegally download anything. it’s illegal. be smart stay in DARE.)
Kelly: I certainly agree that if you want something you should pay for it, and if no one is paying for anything things will eventually stop being able to be created
Kelly: BUT
Kelly: Since the world and technology and how the world uses technology have changed, do you not think it would be a good idea to have some way to meet the people who are going to be downloading your product illegally anyway in the middle?
Kelly: Not because they deserve it in any way
Kelly: Only to attempt to get something out of them
Gabe: well, there is no middle ground between paying something and not paying anything
Gabe: and i guess the answer to your question is basically no
Gabe: otherwise
Gabe: hulu would stay the way it is
Gabe: i mean, clearly the noble and generous thinking behind hulu was exactly that
Gabe: (noble and generous MIGHT be an exaggeration)
Gabe: they clearly tried to give people stuff on pretty generous terms
Gabe: and that is not working
Gabe: so they are going to make people pay again
Gabe: which seems about right
Gabe: and if the argument is people are going to steal it anyway, so people should just get it legally for free is not realistic
Kelly: Well, in this specific example, with Hulu
Kelly: I think requiring an actual cable subscription is also unrealistic
Kelly: Because people watch Hulu largely because they don’t want or particularly need a cable subscription
Gabe: bullshit
Kelly: I do think there should be a middle ground
Gabe: that’s not even close to true
Gabe: people watch hulu because it’s free
Gabe: and they’re lazy
Gabe: and they think this way
Gabe: they don’t NEED to pay for cable
Gabe: it is absolutely not because they made some fundamental decision
Gabe: about not needing cable in their lives
Kelly: Sure
Kelly: I’m not saying because they’re ANTI cable
Kelly: But because there are maybe only a few shows that they actually watch
Gabe: well, again, this is not true
Gabe: you can buy shows
Gabe: on iTunes
Gabe: for 2 dollars
Gabe: so if you only want to watch a show, you can watch a show legally and at a minimal cost
Gabe: i mean, i’m sorry to be so strongly in defense of THE MAN here
Gabe: but we’re also talking about episodes of THE OFFICE or whatever
Gabe: so it’s kind of beside the point to get too aggro-political
Kelly: So do you think there’s no way to have a middle ground between full on THE MAN and NO MAN?
Gabe: well let me ask you this
Gabe: what’s the difference between saying you need a cable account
Gabe: and saying you need to pay a subscription rate?
Kelly: I would think
Kelly: That having a cable account is just more expensive
Kelly: Than a subscription would be
Kelly: To watch things online
Gabe: well, you can think whatever you want
Gabe: you don’t know
Gabe: it seems like the language is what’s bothering you
Gabe: but ultimately they’re basically just saying
Gabe: you need to pay for our stuff now
Kelly: And by saying that Hulu is basically saying
Kelly: Goodbye
Kelly: We don’t exist anymore
Gabe: oh please
Gabe: where do you live? which part of Bushwick?
Kelly: I have cable! I buy Gossip Girl episodes on iTunes for two dollars!
Kelly: But who the F is going to buy cable
Kelly: Just so they can watch HULU
Kelly: on their computers
Gabe: but again, no one does that
Gabe: i mean, 20-year-olds in New York do that
Kelly: Do what?
Gabe: watch TV exclusively on Hulu with the firm belief that to cancel Hulu is to become irrelevant
Gabe: the only reason you or anyone else is mad that Hulu is changing is because you DO want what they are offering
Kelly: Hulu’s is a website where you can watch TV for free
Kelly: And the for free is the selling point
Gabe: right, but we are coming full circle
Gabe: for free is absolutely the selling point
Gabe: but in what way is that appealing
Gabe: to the person spending all the money
Gabe: to make the stuff you want for free?
Gabe: like, why should they care?
Gabe: that’s like saying “it’s ridiculous that Starbucks isn’t giving their coffee away for free becuase I want some of it.”
Kelly: No way
Kelly: What I’m saying is
Gabe: “It’s 2012 starbucks.”
Kelly: It doesn’t make sense for Hulu to not try and continue to be a middle man between TV and Internet.
Kelly: Because if they are just TV
Kelly: Then who cares?
Gabe: look, i don’t want to out myself to the rabble in light of the upcoming class wars
Gabe: but i am an HBO subscriber
Gabe: right?
Gabe: and HBO Go is basically the BEST THING
Gabe: which is HBO’s internet-based middle-ground
Gabe: but you have to be an HBO subscriber
Gabe: to get it
Gabe: so, i just am not buying the Internet’s insistence that
Gabe: the only way for anyone to do anything that matters is to give it away for free
Gabe: again and again and again: this just isn’t a sustainable model
Kelly: I agree
Gabe: so, perhaps what is necessary is some sort of sliding scale
Gabe: of subscription terms
Gabe: but all that actually means is
Gabe: go buy episodes on iTunes
Gabe: the sliding scale already exists in some ways
Gabe: so i don’t even know what the complaint is?
Gabe: unless the complaint is just that you want stuff for free
Gabe: and to that i say
Gabe: I KNOW TOTALLY LIFE IS SO HARD AND UNFAIR
Kelly: Well, I’m not totally sure what the “complaint” is, other than that. But all I’M saying is, as a person who does not even use Hulu and who has cable and buys Gossip Girl episodes on Apple TV, is that
Kelly: For hulu specifically
Gabe: what you’re saying is they need to have on-line distribution of their content, and they do, it’s called hulu, they’re just going to start making people pay for it
Kelly: With a CABLE subscription!
Gabe: also, this is all so speculative
Gabe: and rumor-based
Kelly: Well
Kelly: Hulu confirmed that it’s happening
Kelly: In the next few years
Gabe: by the time this actually happens
Gabe: the world will probably be underwater
Gabe: anyways
Gabe: but
Gabe: if a few people wrap water wings
Gabe: around their TVs and bob them to the surface
Gabe: you will probably be able to buy
Gabe: an on-line only subscription
Gabe: everyone just fucking RELAX
Gabe: but you especially, kelly
Gabe: you are FREAKING OUT
Kelly: I’m a real hot head, especially when it comes to Hulu.
Gabe: wanhhhhhhh, my name is kelly, wanhhhhhhh, i want to watch episodes of Bones on my computer for free in the middle of the day
Gabe: “why would you make The Voice irrelevant?” – Kelly
Kelly: “Why doesn’t everyone just pay for the premium channels and STFU?” -Gabe
Gabe: that is actually a direct quote from me
Gabe: i WOULD say that
Gabe: hey, guess what, i didn’t have cable television until i was 54 fucking years old
Gabe: and i dealt with it
Gabe: it’s not that big of a deal
Gabe: i wasn’t a goddamned crybaby about it
Gabe: I JUST WENT TO WORK IN THE SADNESS MINES AND KEPT MY MOUTH SHUT
Kelly: And look how you turned out
Kelly: TOTALLY PLEASANT
Gabe: “What happened on Frasier last night?”
Gabe: “WHO COULD POSSIBLY KNOW?!”
Gabe: it was a different world back then
Gabe: you kids couldn’t even have handled it
Kelly: Someday I hope to watch a book about it on my iLensBookReader
Kelly: For free
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“Fucking money, how does it work?” -Insane Kelly Posse
Facts:
Cable is too expensive and you get way more channels than any one person needs and WAY MORE COMMERCIALS.
Netflix Streaming is not expensive and you get way more shows than any one person needs and NO COMMERCIALS.
Hulu streaming is free and you get way more shows than any one person needs and SOME commercials.
Guys, I found the middle ground. It’s called Netflix.
Quickster?
Netflix is a nice middle-ground, although you’re also generally not able to watch anything that isn’t already out on DVD, so it’s not really competing with Hulu on the “watch last nights TV the next day” (or whatever the Hulu lag period is) front.
If they come out with some kind of internet-only subscription as Gabe suggests, that might not be the worst option, as it would probably be essentially equivalent to what Hulu Plus is right now.
The real problem for consumers is that each of these services has different deals with each of these subscription-based services, it’s bad for the consumers when you need to subscribe to four different streaming video services just to watch the four shows you want because one is on Fox and one is on NBC and one is on AMC or whatever.
Cable companies not offering any kind of a-la carte “only the stuff you want” type subscriptions is an old complaint, but one that does seem like more and more of a glaring oversight as technology progresses.
I can understand why it wasn’t feasible for them to offer such a thing when cable was just an analog signal and you either got it or you didn’t, but if you’re essentially paying for access to a website, there are a million ways they could define various subscription packages (selected channels, selected shows, number of streaming hours per month, etc).
The way I feel about Kelly in this chat is the way I feel about people who get stuck with the seemingly unwinnable side of an issue in high school debate class. It’s kind of a mix between “Bummer” and “Better them than me!”.
Team Kelly. I have grown accustomed to a certain standard of living and I refuse to go back!
Why can’t Hulu just have a flat monthly fee like Netflix? Cable is really expensive in many places (to give a random example, CHICAGO WHERE I LIVE). I ain’t paying for full cable just to watch the couple of shows I watch on Hulu. I’ll illegally download them and then later assuage my guilt by buying them on DVD.
They do have a flat monthly fee like Netflix. It’s called Hulu Plus.
And yes, there are still commercials. It just opens up a bit more content. I cancelled it after a month, because Netflix is a million times better.
I am aware of Hulu Plus. I’m saying why don’t they make their whole service work that way instead of doing this weird cable thing.
Presumably they could, but they would have to work out some sort of deal with the networks and cable channels to get a license for the content. More and more of those companies are offering streaming content through their own websites and apps. The difference (I think) between Hulu and Netflix is that while Netflix may be great, you can’t watch the show the day after it has aired and come to Videogum to comment, so they aren’t completely analogous services. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you typically have to wait for the end of a season before you can watch episodes from that season on Netflix? In this respect, the content owners, who are paid handsomely by the cable companies, appear to be protecting the interests of the cable companies. While Netflix may compete to some extent with “On Demand” services that cable companies offer, Hulu competes much more directly with the cable companies in real time. Presumably if Hulu wanted to pay the content owners as much (or nearly as much) as the cable companies to obtain a license for the content, they could, but they probably can’t afford to do that.
There’s still value in a service like Hulu even if you already have cable. I would imagine Hulu viewers fall into two camps: 1) Those who watch shows on Hulu because they’re free, and 2) Those who watch shows on Hulu the next day when they’re away from their TVs because they were busy the night before when the show aired on cable. Hulu probably doesn’t make enough money from group 1 to risk losing ALL content from the content owners. That’s my guess, anyway.
And yeah, cable is expensive in Chicago where I also live.
I guess that makes sense. It just seems like there has to be a better way for them to make money than this.
And I will say that one of the main reasons this deal seems gross to me is that Hulu and Comcast are under the same corporate umbrella, so it’s not like it’s some pure “this model is unsustainable” logic. They’re trying to rake in as much cash as possible for their super media conglomerate.
This! Kelly, log back on and raise this point to Gabe! You’ll get the upper hand, yet!
I don’t own a tv, and I pay for internet only. I watch Thursday’s shows and SNL and the Daily Show and the Colbert Report on hulu. I use hulu quite a bit because of this. I don’t plan on paying for hulu anytime soon, and I imagine that once I own a tv again I will be paying for cable and a dvr, I won’t need hulu anyway.
My question is– and I’m old like Gabe (but not that old)– Do you need cable to watch nbc, abc cbs, etc.? Because if not, then why would I pay to watch it online? That knocks out all the nbc stuff. The Daily Show and Colbert Report are available to watch on comedycentral.com. So is South Park. I’m assuming other shows as well. I watch Legend of Korra on nickelodeon’s website. NBC probably streams their shows on their own website too (I would wager without looking it up right now because who has the time?). TBS streams Conan. etc etc.
hulu holds no dominion over those sites other than NBC (both owned by Comcast). The shows are still streaming for free all over the place. It’s just a befuddling announcement.
Gabe, you’re a super good arguer. Is there any chance you will draft me a response to the guy that dumped me via text message this morning?
I’m no Gabe, but I think I can help! Text back: “i m 2 c00l 4 u ne way. hope u die in a f1re LOL >:-(“
This is a GREAT MESSAGE, but of course I just won’t respond so that I can feel morally superior as I cry into my wine glass.
The best response to being dumped via text message is SILENCE. What a douchebag.
Preach.
I think we are all Hulosers in this debate!
So many conflicting emotions here. Part of me is like “Fuck you TV! I don’t need your jive ass!” because it would be kind of interesting if there was no television and we actually had to find original and creative ways to entertain ourselves again (or god forbid, READ) like they did a billion years ago. But another part is like “Gaaaaahhh! Daddy needs his feel good medicine! Wash away my sorrows, warm glowing light.”
Pardon me, I need to go watch Fraiser now.
We need tv. Entertainment is America’s only export. The economy would go weird.
I’m so tired of the “THE WORLD WOULD BE SO MUCH BETTER IF EVERYONE READ MORE BOOKS” bullshit. Take a look at the NYT Top 25 Bestsellers list any given week to get a gauge on the average intelligence of avid readers.
i don’t even watch tv
You don’t own a tv or you don’t watch television shows? (I am aware you are probably poking fun at people who say things like that, but I just want to treat you seriously first)
I’m going to assume that you’re not poking fun at people who say things like that. You can’t see it, but I’m rolling my eyes so hard at you right now.
Were you reading Dead Souls when your Harvard application came in the mail?
“I don’t watch television. I don’t even own a television. Notice I didn’t say ‘tv.’ Tv is a nickname and nicknames are for friends, and television is *no* friend of mine.”
http://youtu.be/6fA9sJ3LBwg
no, i was reading a novelization of the facts of life, tyvm.
I live in the UK and Hulu doesn’t work over here. I was forced into this life of piracy.
What kind of television recording device does a pirate use?
A DV Yarrrrrrrr.
A’thankyou.
I like it when I unambiguously agree with Gabe. It’s refreshing.
So what the hell is gonna happen to hulu plus? I don’t have cable because I’m not a HUGE BUTTLORD who wants to be crippled by 650 choices, all of which are bad. I have hulu plus because parks and recreation and community are worth 8 dollars a month to me and I will be super upset if hulu plus just disappears when this cable TV wall goes forward.
I’m not a twenty year-old living in BK and it’s silly to think that only Lena Dunham would not have cable if they liked TV shows. ILU Gabe but you’re totally wrong.
It’s me. I’m the jerk who would pay full price for HBO Go if I somehow didn’t have to have cable to use it.
You guys, I’m really worried about my TV. I was watching Hart of Dixie and it kept making weird static-y noises. And also there’s a purple circle in the middle sometimes. Do you think my TV is dying? I’ve had it since 2005 and it’s the last of its kind. We’ve been through SO MUCH together. Or maybe it’s my cable? Or maybe it just is telling me to not watch Hart of Dixie???
DON’T TELL ME NOT TO WATCH MAH STORIES, TV.
I can’t believe I actually DISagree with Gabe about something. I’ll limit my comment to this tidbit: ‘that’s like saying “it’s ridiculous that Starbucks isn’t giving their coffee away for free becuase I want some of it.” ‘ No it’s not like that and that is a terrible analogy. Starbucks isn’t making you sit through commercials to drink their cups of coffee. Come on dude. And if the issue is that advertising online doesn’t generate enough revenue to make airing your shows online worth producing a show — hello, charge more for your online advertising. We’re forced to sit through those anyway, whereas do you know anyone who doesn’t skip through commercials on regular TV? Unless they’re watching a live sporting event or something, which I don’t. I haven’t seen a commercial in years that hasn’t been either (a) forced on me before some show I want to watch online or (b) linked to me directly on youtube because it’s funny or clever.
I am on team Kelly in this respect, like you, mostly because I can’t ever get on board with ANALOGY FIGHTING. I work in the musics and I’ve been having the same fight with people for years anytime someone brings up the stalwart defense of prosecuting ‘music pirates” because “it’s basically like walking into a music store and taking a record.” The single most flawed terrible argument based on no similarities whatsoever.
The issue with HULU is not just that there is no flow of money from consumer to product. There is actually. Unless the consumer is stealing wi-fi, they pay their ISPs for access to content. The ISPs in turn, pay no content-makers whatsoever, and yet they provide channels to content. Everyone is too scared of going after ISPs to work out some sort of royalty system to work out a radio-esque flow of money that would satisfy everyone (really…it probably would) because the ISPs are big and powerful and don’t want to give up a fucking red cent to anyone. But really, this whole “if you want someone you have to pay for it” argument is inaccurate. The reason the system is broken is because the larger content-making companies are both pussies or alternatively, corrupt, and everyone seems blissfully okay with a hundred dollar a month internet bill.
To further, because I’m actually somewhat fascinated by the topic of the current value of art/entertainment content, and also to procrastinate things I should be doing –
You know how you pay to walk into an amusement park? Like an astronomical fee just to walk in the doors? And you know how the park houses all sorts of rides and booths and midways and such? Well imagine all those guys showed up for free. The park didn’t pay them a dollar. And the amusement park also offered two options – you could pay the carnies yourself (in addition to the fee you paid to enter) to ride their coasters…or you also just do it for free. Both required a fairly similar amount of effort to accomplish (the free and the pay.)
Odds are pretty good that people would rationalize the free option. Honestly, I don’t even see why you wouldn’t – it’s 60 bucks just to get in! Might as well get what you can, on the house. I’m not saying that’s the correct ethical decision – I’m just saying that is what the majority of people will think because they aren’t idiots and aren’t ethical.
Okay, well now imagine the carnies starting yelling at the people who paid to enter the park but wanted to ride for free. “Look, you need to pay for this ride” and you’re like “Well I’m in the park already, and I am being given the choice to do it for free, so I’m picking free” and the carnies are like “Well in a lot of countries that’s legal so I can’t really do anything about it but please consider paying for this ride.”
The carnies should be asking the amusement park for money. Nobody is going to a park without rides and booths and fun things to do and see. Sure, there’s still a few people dressed as Goofy and Pluto, but certainly nobody is going to spend 60 bucks to get in the door. There is clearly leverage on the side of the carnies, and they are wasting it.
“can’t ever get on board with ANALOGY FIGHTING. I am, however, very fond of extended metaphor fighting.” – djfreshie
Accurate assessment, but there’s a huge difference between “This is exactly like going into starbucks” yada yada when you’ve already assumed a connection between two situations which are not, in fact similar in anyway…and “imagine a situation where this happens and I’m not comparing two things, but rather substituting the subjects for the sake of vague comparison to help understand consumer motivations”
To be more accurate though:
“can’t ever get on board with ANALOGY FIGHTING. I am, however, very fond of extended CARNIE metaphor fighting.” – djfreshie
It’s always carnies.
Yeah, I agree with you.
I only joke because I’m jealous of your amusement parks with actual carnies, mine only employed pimply teens.
There’s only one kind of folk that work at amusement park, and that’s Carnie folk. Those pimply faced kids are Carnies by association. They may not know it yet, and neither may you, but they’re carnies. For life. They are free to grow scarce pre-teen moustaches, both girl and boy alike. A wonderful life awaits them…a life of games and toys and rides and endless fun, at least until October, and then it’s back to mom’s basement.
hulu made 420 million in ad revenue last year! that is a lot of cheddar. buying hulu a few years ago was a great move. i do wonder if privatizing it a bit won’t cause the number of viewers to drop, but that’s not really the point anyway- number of viewers only matter in the sense that they can then use those viewer stats to sell ads at a higher price point.
“It doesn’t matter except in the sense that it’s the entire reason the service exists and the metric by which it is deemed profitable or a waste”
“No it’s not like that and that is a terrible analogy. Starbucks isn’t making you sit through commercials to drink their cups of coffee.”
See, I come at it from the other direction, which is, if you’re homeless, broke and slowly starving to death, the fact that Starbucks won’t give you a free coffee and brownie actually IS ridiculous.
That doesn’t mean I think Starbucks is immoral for not giving free coffee to anybody who asks, but a terrible result doesn’t magically become a good result just because every individual decision leading to that result made sense at the time.
There. Now you don’t have to read that other post where I said the same thing at three times the length.
Yes Starbucks is making you sit through commercials – ads on the side of the cup, ads on the windows, ads on signs in the stores, ads in the freaking bathroom.
Once you’ve paid for your coffee, do you have to stare at the ad on the side of the cup for 30 seconds before you drink it? And actually, to be a more directly accurate analogous situation, you would be forced to drink an entirely different beverage for 30 seconds before you can start drinking the beverage you wanted in the first place. Although it may be that they do employ this practice now at Starbucks, I haven’t been to one in a while.
And while we’re at it and perhaps more importantly, what’s with the NOT holding Mr. Coconuts the third Tuesday of the month as usual, but instead the *day after Memorial Day* when some of us, not saying who, but some of us, who might faithfully have attended every month, will still be on vacation because we only get a few vacation days a year and so are forced to travel on holiday weekends? THAT’S BULLSHIT MAN.
I basically do not get Gabe’s attitude here at all.
The sequence of events is essentially this:
Problem: Cable subscriptions offer you a variety of channels. Too many, in fact; you’re paying a lot of money for twelve channels that you watch and the 50 that have never had a single program on them that you have ever wanted to watch in the decade you’ve been paying for cable.
Solution: A fairly cheap high-speed internet network that allows people to watch only the programs that appeal to them, and at the times that are best for them.
New Problem: The current business plans of the big entertainment conglomerates don’t work unless people are paying for those useless channels and watching the programs on TV
Solution: Suppress the useful, popular technology and decide there is no solution to the original problem.
I’m not saying anybody on that chain of logic made a bad decision, morally or in terms of business, I’m just saying that if we live in a system where mediocre ideas that make money routinely, and expectedly crowd out better ideas that don’t make money, maybe that’s actually a legitimate problem?
To look at that chain of events and essentially react with “What, you think that good ideas should do better than bad ones just because they’re good ideas? What are you, some kind of baby?” is really, really weird to me.
Also, real talk: Why are cable ad revenues so much higher than Hulu ad revenues? I haven’t watched an ad on live TV since they invented the mute button, and I haven’t watched them on the internet since they invented ad blocking software. Actually, my ad blocker seems to have stopped working on Hulu, and the 30 seconds of ads they have there aren’t annoying enough for me to try to turn off, so I’m arguably MORE likely to see and respond to ads on Hulu.
You know TV used to be free, right? They just broadcast that shit over the airwaves and paid for it with ad revenue. Why is this not an option for Hulu?
TV used to be free because there were only four channels and the internet didn’t exist and the 50 million people watching a single show didn’t have the option of fast-forwarding through the commercials.
Hi folks. Let’s be honest. If we want networks to keep producing quality content, our Mad Mens, our Parks & Recs, our [third show], we’re gonna need to pay way more than $8 a month in order to make up for the live ad revenue that pays for the production costs of those shows.
I agree with this so much. You know what’s free? YouTube. If that isn’t entertaining enough, you should have to pay more for higher quality entertainment. Listen, broadcast and cable networks tried to peacefully coexist with the internet but they haven’t been able to justify the decreasing profit margins and so whatever free stuff we used to get isn’t working anymore. Also Netflix is a good example of this not working the way they want it to…remember when they raised rates 60%? That’s gonna happen again soon, I guarantee it.
Networks don’t owe us anything. They provide a product (whether you think it’s a good or a service, fine) and they need to change the business model because it’s not profitable. If you don’t want to pay what it costs, don’t buy it (capitalism!) but don’t get mad because it used to be free and now you have to pay in some format. Or get one of those digital receivers and just watch the broadcast networks (and PBS).
Hey, why not just record your favourite shows off your computer onto a VCR tape?
BECAUSE ALL I HAVE ARE DUSTY 8 TRACKS
Gabe: television is BIG BUSINESS
Gabe: and in general
Gabe: with BIG BUSINESS
Gabe: you do not give away your product for free
Can you IMAGINE if CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX just gave their programs away for FREE! Like if you had this special electrical box in your house that you would allow you to just watch their programs FOR FREE and all they got was piddly little ad money in exchange for that? Quit dreaming commie, that’s impossible and could never have made billions for decades.
You can’t just watch a few ads and pay $8 a month for the Hulu, you will also need to pay $100 a month for cable, because these big TV networks just will not give away their TV programs FOR FREE! That would be stupid and would never ever work. Because BIG BUSINESS!
Also, if your grandmother is still watching these network programs FOR FREE with that weird antenna thing then you need to call the cops on her for STEALING and being entitled and dumb. And maybe send a couple hundred bucks to Fox to show them you understand how wrong it was to expect to be able to watch Amercan Idiol FOR FREE like a parasite thief.
You’re talking about a business model that worked before the internet. I’m guessing the broadcast networks would love to go back to that provided they didn’t have to compete with the internet.
It’s trickier with Hulu since they are owned by the content owners, but the thing all the whiners overlook is this: Netflix, Hulu, etc., would LOVE to have every show and movie available to everyone regardless of their cable or satellite subscription. That would mean they could charge more for ads.
We all got mad at Netflix when their library started sucking but that’s because we got lucky initially. The content owners didn’t see the same value in streaming as Netflix and licensed their stuff cheap. They wised up, and demanded more. So much more that Netflix couldn’t license them without drastically raising subscription fees or keep the subscriber cost the same and not make much of a profit. So which is it? Do you want your steaming shows or do you want to pay next to nothing? It can’t be both. It was for a time, but not anymore.
There is a great ad for Comcast’s Triple Play service right underneath this box where I am writing this comment in support of Gabe’s principle (you have to pay for things of value) but also Kelly’s skepticism at extorting someone to pay for cable.