Posted by Matt Kolowski on Fri, Sep 18, 2009
Don't bother worrying about her; the Hulu Hurricane
TM has already taken her.
I love me some Netflix. I really do. Not the whole, "get DVDs in the mail like my 70 year old Father" deal. I enjoy sitting back in my snuggie with a nice toasted turkey sandwich and firing up some 30 Rock on my 360, and if I'm so inclined, The Office as well. Netflix allows you to stream a portion of their library right to your 360, for about $8/mo. And I don't have to worry about shipping back the copy of ‘Hope Floats' I just watched. Who wants to deal with the Postal service? Not me. The whole thing is pretty killer.
But you know what's not killer? Hulu gobbling up all of NBC's TV shows. As of October 1, those two shows, and many others, will no longer be offered on Netflix's Watch Now. It looks like both Hulu and the Major networks realized people were getting stuff for free when there's money to be made! So those two signed a deal, and it seems like Hulu will be the online partner for a bunch of networks.
What's that you say? Hulu is free? It is for now, but don't count on it being like that for long. Just imagine, Comcast On Demand, whatever FiOS has for their TV shows, NBC.com, FOX.com, and all the other terrible streaming websites in one big place. That's going to be Hulu. And it's going to cost you. Even the Wall Street Journal iPhone app is going subscription based. Heck, we should probably start charging for this Trigon Blog.
With YouTube looking to be covering the online movie streaming business in the next year or so, someone's got to get in on the TV show pie. And can I say one thing? Why the heck did it take someone at YouTube THIS LONG to realize, "Hey, maybe we can make money by putting MOVIES on here, too!?" That guy should instantly become CEO.
Scratch that, someone make me YouTube's CEO. And get me some pie while we're at it.
Posted by Solutions Center on Mon, Sep 14, 2009
It was recently reported by the New York Times that YouTube is in negotiations with Lionsgate Entertainment, Sony, and Warner Brothers to allow YouTube to start hosting newer movies on their servers. Right now, YouTube hosts a collection of older movies, but they would like to expand this selection and make it more current. The new selections would be made available to viewers at or around their DVD release dates. Although previously opposed to this, YouTube would provide this service at a cost to the viewers.
In the past, YouTube has had trouble getting major advertisers to pay for space on their site, being that their content is not overly regulated or professional. By adding this new section to their site, they hope to attract more interest from larger organizations. This will be very similar to what NBC, Fox, and Disney did with Hulu. In a relatively short period of time, Hulu has already attracted many more big name sponsors then YouTube has, even though Hulu has a much smaller viewer base. However, instead of offering television shows for free with commercials, they will be offering online paid movie rentals.
Depending on how they structure their business model, YouTube could be offering something very similar to Netflix and Blockbuster. With their already enormous footprint on the internet and given their current computer network infrastructure, YouTube should be able to secure a large share of the online movie rental market. This could mean the end of Blockbuster or Netflix. Or it could force one of them to come up with the next generation process for renting movies.