This is not a great idea
Apr. 30th, 2012 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessHulu.com planning to change to a system where customers must prove that they are "paying" cable customers in order to stream Hulu.com shows.
I assume this is an attempt to get people to pay for cable TV instead of skipping cable and just watching shows on Hulu.com instead. I also doubt this will work, because:
1) Speaking as a Hulu user, the main thing I watch on Hulu.com? Shows from broadcast TV (Fox, NBC, ABC) or, more rarely, Syfy and the USA Network. Thanks to the scattered way Syfy kinda throws, or doesn't throw, their shows up online, however, I've mostly switched to waiting for the DVDs from the library for those shows, and I'd have no problem doing this with Burn Notice, the only show I'm still watching from the USA Network. (I gave up on White Collar, which kept descending into greater levels of inanity, but this isn't that rant.)
Most of these shows? Do not require cable TV to view in this area. Granted, getting NBC (which apparently has its broadcast tower someplace on Mars) can occasionally require a mystical dance and a lot of beer, but the other stations come in just fine, thanks, from Daytona through Tampa. In fact, the only reason I bother with Hulu.com is --
2) I much, much prefer the experience of viewing television through streaming or DVDs. Fewer or no commercials, the ability to pause a show at any point and return whenever, should, for instance, a cat suddenly have a freak out attack, the ability to rewind a show at any point and see bits I missed thanks to a freaked out cat or if I need to confirm, "She said WHAT?" (ok, that's pretty much just Revenge this year), the ability to watch the show again immediately if it was really really good (ok, pretty much Downton Abbey, and not this season), and most critically, the ability to watch whenever I want. If this season's attempt to watch Fringe live has taught us anything, it is that I am just not good at remembering when particular shows are on. And sometimes I'm just not physically up to watching any given show at any given time.
I can't be the only person avoiding cable television not merely because of the cost (it's a factor, but not the main one) but because it's offering something I really don't want: live access to shows I don't really want to see, with lots of commercials.
Sure, I considered getting cable television with a DVR recording in preparation for the Summer Olympics (something both household members would watch) and for season two of Game of Thrones (which I would watch.) But in the end, I didn't want it. And that's the chief problem with this idea: customers are not leaving cable television because of Hulu.com (or, for that matter, Amazon or iTunes.) They are leaving because they don't want cable television. Will I change my mind later? Well, that depends on cable television, not Hulu.
I assume this is an attempt to get people to pay for cable TV instead of skipping cable and just watching shows on Hulu.com instead. I also doubt this will work, because:
1) Speaking as a Hulu user, the main thing I watch on Hulu.com? Shows from broadcast TV (Fox, NBC, ABC) or, more rarely, Syfy and the USA Network. Thanks to the scattered way Syfy kinda throws, or doesn't throw, their shows up online, however, I've mostly switched to waiting for the DVDs from the library for those shows, and I'd have no problem doing this with Burn Notice, the only show I'm still watching from the USA Network. (I gave up on White Collar, which kept descending into greater levels of inanity, but this isn't that rant.)
Most of these shows? Do not require cable TV to view in this area. Granted, getting NBC (which apparently has its broadcast tower someplace on Mars) can occasionally require a mystical dance and a lot of beer, but the other stations come in just fine, thanks, from Daytona through Tampa. In fact, the only reason I bother with Hulu.com is --
2) I much, much prefer the experience of viewing television through streaming or DVDs. Fewer or no commercials, the ability to pause a show at any point and return whenever, should, for instance, a cat suddenly have a freak out attack, the ability to rewind a show at any point and see bits I missed thanks to a freaked out cat or if I need to confirm, "She said WHAT?" (ok, that's pretty much just Revenge this year), the ability to watch the show again immediately if it was really really good (ok, pretty much Downton Abbey, and not this season), and most critically, the ability to watch whenever I want. If this season's attempt to watch Fringe live has taught us anything, it is that I am just not good at remembering when particular shows are on. And sometimes I'm just not physically up to watching any given show at any given time.
I can't be the only person avoiding cable television not merely because of the cost (it's a factor, but not the main one) but because it's offering something I really don't want: live access to shows I don't really want to see, with lots of commercials.
Sure, I considered getting cable television with a DVR recording in preparation for the Summer Olympics (something both household members would watch) and for season two of Game of Thrones (which I would watch.) But in the end, I didn't want it. And that's the chief problem with this idea: customers are not leaving cable television because of Hulu.com (or, for that matter, Amazon or iTunes.) They are leaving because they don't want cable television. Will I change my mind later? Well, that depends on cable television, not Hulu.