Letters to the Editor
-
Editing
I believe But Hulu's got only the newest episodes of newer shows have only the newest episodes
Should be But Hulu's got only the newest episodes of newer shows have only the newest episodes of newer shows' newest episodes
-
Using my computer to watch TV
Is too much work. Just flip on random CNBC or Spongebob. It's all pretty much the same.
-
Thanks Lynx
for catching that.
-
What about Joost?
From classic Star Trek to Sports Illustrated on demand to PBS, the classic Twilight Zone, all with almost no commercials and high video quality Joost is everything television should be. And it supports OSX and Windows too.
Joost, however, suffers from the same problem as Hulu, as the content is a hodgepodge of old stuff, and none of the new shows.
For most content, though, my family has switched to Netflix. Why waste 20 minutes of every hour watching commercials when you can see the uninterrupted shows on DVD? All you have to do is be patient, but its much more satisfying to watch an entire season, one show at a time.
-
@Michael, re Joost
That's what's great about Hulu -- it does have the new shows. Many more, in my estimation, than Joost does.
-
Hulu's fantastic...
Thanks for Farhad for mentioning it back in October, as that motivated me to sign up for the beta.
As far as Netflix though... they won't be getting my subscription fees any more until they can actually send me The Wire. "Long wait"? Forget it.
-
Saturday Night Live
You mention in your post that full episodes of Saturday Night Live are available on Hulu. Just checked and they're only offering clips unless I'm missing something. I'm hoping that they eventually do have the full episodes!
-
USA only?
Does this site only include American shows? I would be interested in seeing shows from other places...Canada, Australia, UK, Europe, etc.
-
American ....
Not only does it only carry American shows - only Americans can see them. I was lucky enough to be granted a Beta pass to hulu - only to find out it's locked to anyone outside the US.
Some fun.
-
thanks
I see. Just like the good ol' DVD region codes. Nothing like stifling international free markets. And these companies wonder why people hate them.
-
Might not be all their fault, at least in Canada
I think Canadian IPs are blocked because of the assinine Canadian Content legislation here, which means we get pretty pictures of Canadian geese in our US feeds (how culturally enriching!). It's still really, really irritating and I'm still searching for a proxy that's reliable enough to get around the blocks.
For some things, I guess, living in the US isn't all bad.
-
World-wide web?
No full episodes of Law & Order, only short clips, and even those clips are not viewable from France (aka "your country or region"). What is the point of restricting access to 2-minute clips? It looks like a complete waste of time, so far as the rest of the world is concerned. I can't say I'm surprised, but I am disappointed.
I'm not sure whether my first attempt to post this comment was successful; apologies for the double post if it was.
-
In defense of the Studios
I'm not sure people understand how the international market for film and TV works. The American studios or large independents who produce the shows or films, do not directly have a hand in international distribution. They sell the rights to individual distributors in different markets, ie. they sell the rights to one distributor in France, another in Thailand, another in North Africa, another in Australia etc. etc. Once sold, those distribution companies have exclusive rights to the show or film in their territory. For a studio to then put that TV show up on the internet in a way that persons in said country could view would be a serious breach of contract. In effect the studios would be pirating their own content.
At some point there will be a push to make these services available in other markets, but for a nascent sight like Hulu, the cost involved in negotiating with each distributor of a certain TV show would most likely exceed all the money that has been spent so far in developing Hulu. and that would just be on the lawyer fees, let alone any buyouts or profit sharing that would be required to get the international distributors to sign on.
Further complicating this is the fact that International distribution money represents a large part of the capital necessary to get a film made to begin with. Huge numbers of Indies and pseudo-indies and even studios receive a large portion of the money to make a project based on pre selling content overseas. They negotiate a contract with an individual distributor to purchase the rights for a certain amount of money, and then use that contract as collateral for a bank loan.
So the studios and independents are right now dependent on a decent relationship with distributors in order to raise money to make their product. For this reason alone any decision that could upset the apple cart in anyway will be looked at carefully. If NBC television does something that infringes on a local distributors rights to the office, you can be sure that that distributor will retaliate by being stingy or not doing business with other portions of the NBC-Universal conglom.
I get that the internet is going to change all of this, and it will happen relatively quickly, but two things have to happen.
Studios are gong to need to feel like the revenue they receive from international distribution will out way the legal costs and pay outs necessary to be relatively lawsuit proof.
Newer methods of pre financing will need to be figured out.
-
Retro scene is the biggest draw for HULU especially Airwolf
Just love this whole 1980s retro scene at the moment. Hulu certainly helps me re-live those years. Hopefully Knight Rider 2008 will be picked up for the Fall (and they'll give the car and The Hoff more to do).
In the meantime I'm enjoying the awesome new, digitally remastered Airwolf soundtrack that they've just released called 'Airwolf Themes' which you can download off Apple iTunes Store, or from their official website where there are great teaser samples, http://www.airwolfthemes.com/ I think Hulu's Airwolf pheneomenon is just the tip of the iceberg and really just setting us all up for an Airwolf revival movie too.