I Heart Chaos — Hulu changing subscription plan to require an existing cable TV connection. Well there goes Hulu
Really? Does Hulu want it to lose 50% of it's business overnight? I cut the cable a few months ago, using Netflix and Hulu Plus to catch what I want. Ah well, I guess Torrents will have to do. I logged in and sent them an email in the Contact Us part of their site to let me know the day they switch over so I can cancel my service.
First the netflix debacle now this; execs are fraking idiots.
This is going to hurt them when folks using mobile devices can't get to see their shows. These companies have good things going that can only get better but they don't want to leave well enough alone. What's the point of this when most people use hulu so they don't need cable?
It's all about a scramble for $$$. In the immortal words of Blackie Lawless, they can shuck me, suck me, eat me raw!
Follow the money, Comcast/NBC as well as other studios own Hulu in it's entirety. It's not that big of a surprise they're going to cripple the service further. Their traditional business is being eaten alive by new fangled technologies and they've decided they don't want to play anymore, for the time being at least. The execs are under pressure to shore up their bottom lines, even if it's a short term gain.
Wow.. I think they missed the point of their own service. Talk about a step backwards...
...and people wonder why there are so many pirated copies of movies/tv.
I wrote the Hulu support people from within the site while logged in and got this response:
That being said, Chandra is a worker bee who wouldn't know about such changes, nor be authorized to talk about them if it were true. But I've made myself heard with them, best I can do as a consumer.Thanks for writing and sharing your thoughts. Nothing has changed for our service, so I wouldn't pay too much attention to any articles speculating otherwise. We are always working on improving our service for all users, so if we ever add any new features, we'll be sure to announce them on our website and blog ( Hulu Blog ).
Again, thank you for writing. Please let me know if you have any other questions, or if there's anything else I can help you with.
Thanks,
Chandra
I just got rid of my HD DVR from Comcast and went back to standard digital cable.
Got on XBOX live and HULU Plus. This saves me $660 a year by going this route. I kept the digital cable so I can watch sporting events.
I would have dropped cable all together but I love my sports.
Now if HULU Plus requires cable... then Comcast will probably require some kind of new box to access HULU Plus. WTF! This sucks to hear this about HULU.
I've been sticking with Netflix. The selection might not be the most recent, but I still love the service. I decided to try Hulu Plus, but upon realizing that I still had to sit through commercials even though I was paying for the service, I immediately cancelled and went back to Netflix.
Looks like I'll also be sticking to torrents for current shows I want to keep up on.
I actually don't mind the commercials in Hulu Plus, as they are usually only 30 seconds, and the stuff I'm seeing is only a few days old usually. And at $8 a month, that's a pretty good deal. But for this, I'll drop it in a heartbeat.
THIS. Pay $8 a month for Netflix's instant stream and get everything it has to offer without commercials, most of it in HD, on any device.aeonpulse said:
Pay $8 a month for Hulu+ and still have commercials, and still be limited by what they decide to show you (Psych, for instance, is on a 30-day delay).
I like instant streaming. Most of the time I'm busy when a show comes on and I'd like to catch it when I'd like to (I don't have a DVR).
What they should do is Netflix should buy Hulu and offer it as part of their Instant Streaming service in a new section, possibly the "Next-Day TV" section or something, plus, Netflix would gain all the shows that Hulu has. Then we'd have everything in one damn place instead of having to juggle around to get "most" of everything.
Well, if they require a cable connection then our household will be cancelling hulu-plus. The closest the cable lines come to my place is about a mile down the road, and Charter wanted to charge nearly $600 to run lines down to my place and ATT has no plans to run fiber-optic & have U-verse down my road any time soon. I have to use wireless high-speed internet for internet acess. It's like the entertainment exec's have no clue or care about rural areas.... they only care about the areas that are acres of pavement in any direction.
Once my folks get a new tv i'd show them how to do streaming but lord it took me forever to teach them how to use the DVR and my dad still doesn't get it lol. Plus our internet isn't the greatest as it is always wonky. I swear it is something in this house.
The problem I see with requiring cable of any sort is how can they know if you have it or not? There are lots of cable companies in this country and i find it hard to believe they'll be able to, or allowed to, sync accounts so they know if you have cable or not.
I just don't see a very do-able way for them to verify each person has cable and keeps it.
cboath said:
It would be done the same way HBO GO works on mobile devices.
It verifies your subscription and provider from a list.
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