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Hulu Requests Removal From Boxee
Boxee has just sent out an email to bloggers alerting them that as of this Friday, they will be removing Hulu from their channel lineup. This comes at the request of Hulu. Apparently Boxee has been working to try to keep Hulu in their lineup for two weeks.
From the Boxee blog post:
we love Hulu. they have built a great product and brand (including one the best Superbowl ads this year)… the response has been amazing. people love watching many of their favorite shows on Hulu via boxee. last week we generated more than 100,000 streams for them…two weeks ago Hulu called and told us their content partners were asking them to remove Hulu from boxee. 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.
Hulu has also posted on the Boxee removal:
Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product, and we are respecting their wishes…Without their content, none of what Hulu does would be possible, including providing you content via Hulu.com and our many distribution partner websites…For those Boxee users reading this post, we understand and appreciate that you’re likely to tell us that we’re nuts. Please know that we do share the same interests and won’t stop innovating in support of the bigger mission.
Check out our video interview with Boxee co-founder Avner Ronen.
Yes. Hunching over a PC is exactly as attractive as sitting on the couch watching TV. That’ll work.
Allen,
That’s very true but I was using Boxee as a digital media center. I made a linux box for it with a nice video card and put it beside my large LCD TV and I streamed Hulu.
Now I’ll just use a browser and Boxee will be uninstalled on Friday.
mike
oh that’s easy – the shows want control – and boxee scares them – i don’t use boxee but it seems to be all the rage these days
the thing is – the ads travel with hulu so you would think more streams = better but you knew this was coming –
Wow, Hulu. Lame. I’m wondering what the purpose of this could be.
Boxee is really cool. Too bad you don’t have a Mac or Linux. ;D
I know – everyday I wake up and hope when I hit the office a macintosh computer will be there.
Which office?
our NYC hq
You mean your laptop next to the bed/dining room?
Hellooooo Allen. Did Hulu pull from CBS’s TV.com also? (I’m sooo outa touch :). Was nice for a while to have one or two good TV video portals…..
yep that was the big story this morning
Guess next Fox and NBC stop being ‘pals’ and we get ‘Hulu, the sequel’? The quality of some of the shows has improved enough to watch online and comfortably forget Tivo or DVR. Interesting that online the commercials don’t bother me as much ….
Crap :(
And I was planning on canceling cable because I can see it all online.
Boxee is pretty much useless to me now :(
but you can still see it all – just go to hulu.com
Totally lame! We can only hope for Boxee to rise up and take over the world and have Hulu begging them to let them back in!
Looks like i’m going to be ‘the lone voice of dissent’ here but i’m sorry i have to agree with Hulu’s position.
I’m not sure if you were on the yi-tan conference call 3 weeks ago but i raised these questions with Avner on this call at that time and the answer he gave us at the time was that “Boxee is like a browser we just deliver the content” – unfortunately thats not the case as i see it.
Boxee is repurposing content without regards to the original content licensor.
The analogy i used was it would be no different to recording FTA tv onto dvd’s and selling them down on canal street.
At the end of the day i think the next move is up to Boxee to go back and negotiate commercial terms that make sense for all partners involved.
One of the lessons i learned out of working with Akimbo is that when you put a ‘fair deal for all’ onto the table then everyone works to move things forward as a team. At the moment one of the Boxee team providers dont perceive the value in being part of this and it’s up to Avner to convince them otherwise.
(Actually, to be honest i think Hulu should be paying Boxee but thats a discussion for another time as well).
Cheers,
Dean Collins
http://www.Cognation.net
You see it wrong then. Boxee didn’t make any money with Hulu. They also didn’t strip out the ads or claimed that they provided the user with a stream; you still see all ads, it’s “advertised” that the content comes from Hulu — so what’s the deal?
Point taken, due to Hulu, Boxee’s (free) product looked more appealing to many. That’s what they gained. They also provided a service to a lot of users which Hulu didn’t.
The nature of boxee this will be got around I think.
I think its a stupid idea on the part of hulu content providers but I guess its more to do with the fact people are watching the content on TV than anything else.
Will users switch their viewing habits to movies via NetFlix, podcasts and other content putting pressure on Hulu to get back in the program? Sounds like a longer term possibility, but it will be missed for now.