Weekend Roundup: Breaking Eggs Edition
on Friday, July 2, 2010As I’ve chewed on / had a few days to think about the Hulu Plus announcement, I am both amazed at what a bad idea it is, on some many levels. I guessed I’ve moved from questions to lethargy. I tweeted yesterday that I thought Hulu was trying to make an omelet without breaking eggs on this one and was failing miserably. Still feel that way.
Here are a few other thoughts from people smarter than me (although I’d love to hear from Boxee or Roku right now):
- NewTeeVee suggests that this isn’t an issue of cable killing at all – and that it’s an issue of the “killing” DVD television series runs. We can do better than that.
- VideoNuze thinks the big problem is that people are both paying for content and ads. Whereas yes, this is annoying – isn’t that what people currently do with cable subscriptions? And, don’t cable subscriptions at least come with cable channels? Just in case you missed it, Hulu Plus is a broadcast television play only – no cable content allowed.
- Finally, the LA Times is commenting on the crazy amount of 1 start ratings the app is getting in the IOS App Store. It’s a people’s protest of sorts, I guess.
- Updated: Had to add the fact that Blockbuster is getting delisted. Insert token those who don’t change line here.
There is also a lot of talk online about how you have to pay for the higher level of access to the PS3 or Xbox versions while paying for the access but I’m pretty sure the zillion or so Xbox users watching Netflix on their gold accounts have gotten over that pretty quickly.
I’m frustrated because it is a very very very weak attempt at bridging the gap, almost so weak that one might ask if it was designed to fail. I’ve said from the beginning that I think Hulu was designed to fail since day one and although the Hulu Plus announcement did surprise me, I can’t help but wonder if I’m still right.
What do you think?
