RSSHulu apologizes as it bids an early goodbye to Boxee
By Tim Conneally | Published February 18, 2009, 7:45 PM
Freeware media center Boxee is still very young, but offers a comprehensive solution for both managing a user's existent collection of movies, music, and photos, and discovering free online content. Unfortunately, it will be continuing ahead without support from Hulu.
In a blog post entitled Doing hard things, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar today announced that Hulu's content will no longer be available on boxee after this week. Done at the behest of content providers (aka Hollywood Studios), Kilar said that Hulu really had no choice but to suspend support for boxee.
"The maddening part of writing this blog entry is that we realize that there is no immediate win here for users," Kilar wrote. "Please know that we take very seriously our role of representing users such that we are able to provide more and more content in more and more ways over time. We embrace this activity in ways that respect content owners' --and even the entire industry's-- challenges to create great content that users love. Yes, it's a complex matter. A tough mission, and a never-ending one, but one we are passionately committed to."
Avner Ronen, boxee's equivalent to Myspace's Tom, responded, "We tried (many times) to plead the case for keeping Hulu on boxee, but on Friday of this week, in good faith, we will be removing it."
Ronen's tone was actually much more positive than that of Hulu's Jason Kilar. "We have many content partners who are generating revenue from boxee users, and we will work with Hulu and their partners to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. We will tell them how users love Hulu on boxee, why it represents a great opportunity for them to better engage with fans of their shows, how boxee can help in exposing their content to new people, and why they should be excited about future opportunities of working with us."
Boxee is still in beta for OS X and Linux, and last month began private alpha tests in Windows. The free software is available at boxee.tv.
Someone will create a third-party plug-in that allows you to watch Hulu. Really, all it needs to do is spoof the user agent. its only a matter of time.
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|lol, big media doesn't want their content streamed to a set/display where you can view and enjoy without going blind, you know so you'll perhaps pay for their shows via subscription services (iTunes, cable, sat) ... where does it END, you know pretty soon the internet will be this big clusterf*ck of interactive viewing, restricted 8 ways from sunday, you just have to shake your head and hope it all works out for the best, but i have my doubts, at least when it comes to streaming content outside the US.
oh well, honestly, NBC can suck a d*ck for not fighting for the consumer, like they can't talk directly with the heads at Fox, Warner Bros whomever and talk sense into each other
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|"NBC can suck a d*ck for not fighting for the consumer, like they can't talk directly with the heads at Fox, Warner Bros whomever and talk sense into each other"
And propose what precisely, smart ass? We are not talking you and your buddies sorting out where to buy pot but a Multi Billion dollar industry that made Multi Billion dollar investments and is liable to its share holders.
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|I propose Boxee users buy stocks in NBC. Then they will be the shareholders and they can say, "We want Hulu to work with Boxee".
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|Foolish move. The industry perceives the jump onto the TV screen that Boxee facilitates as a threat. The PC is apparently no problem even as the streaming quality gets better, but the TV raises flags. Very short-sighted as the 2 platforms are already beginning to merge. Viewers = ad revenue.
At least there's finally been progress on the Windows Media Center front (at least until Hulu decides to break it).
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|Short sighted? You don't get it. This is a serious threat to the cable operators and they are fighting back precisely because they see where this will lead for them. Their entire business model is threatened by the to combined offer of free over the air HD plus the likes of Hulu etc.
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|i guess its time for cable to die then, after all... its overpriced and overrated as it has been for years
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