Boxee, the software that turns computers and Apple TVs into media centers, has been forced to drop support for Hulu, the excellent TV and movie-on-demand service. Why? Because Boxee puts the shows on the wrong kind of screen.
If you think this is absurd, you are correct. Here’s what happened, according to a Hulu blog post: "Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product."
So essentially the networks, which provide content to Hulu, told them that people couldn’t watch these shows on a TV screen. Boxee is a popular and easy to use piece of software which allows you to sit back on the sofa and stream media from both the internet and your own hard drive onto the TV. This is exactly the same as if you were to browse to the Hulu site, watch a show in full screen mode and hook the computer up to your TV.
This is not Hulu’s fault. "The maddening part of writing this blog entry is that we realize that there is no immediate win here for users" writes Hulu CEO Jason Kilar in the blog post. Boxee, too, is disappointed, as the Hulu service was clearly a hit. Boxee’s Avner Ronen: "People love watching many of their favorite shows on Hulu via boxee. Last week we generated more than 100,000 streams for them."
Here, if it were needed, is proof that the TV companies hate you. It also shows us just how stupid they are, desperate to hang on to a tired, fraying business model where they choose where and when you can watch TV and movies.
The Hulu situation [Boxee blog]
Doing hard things [Hulu Blog]
Doing Stupid Things [NBC blog — just kidding!]
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