Hulu: too little, too late?
"One challenge Hulu faces is building a predictable and stable library of content. To protect DVD and Web download sales, media companies often make TV shows and films available free on the Web for certain periods of time and then remove them. For example, there are 11 episodes of the TV show “24” on Hulu — beginning with episode 18 of the first season. “If those episodes keep disappearing, they are going to have trouble getting people to go back and recommend TV shows on Hulu to their friends,” said Bobby Tulsiani, an analyst at JupiterResearch." (Brad Stone, The New York Times)
I have been beta testing Hulu for months now and I must admit that some of their policies are puzzling to say the least. Incomplete libraries and random episodes are not really going to help this new service. It's hard to understand the logic behind the selection of content: it feels like going to a restaurant and being told by the waiter that half of the dishes "today are not available" or that "you cannot have the appetizers or the main course, but you can choose between six different kinds of dessert. And, yeah, you can have a salad, too". Also: it's frustrating to have your plate taken away when you are still "working on it"... That's exactly what happens to TV series on Hulu: now you see them, now you don't... Hmmm... Hulu has a bigger potential than Joost, but that's not saying much... I don't see how this service could compete with iTunes, Xbox Live Marketplace and Netflix - sure, it is "freely" accessible, but how can you build an audience if the content comes and goes randomly? While everybody is trying to create vast, always-there, accessible databases, Hulu seems to be content of being a small scale version of YouTube (there are tons of SNL clips - and the quality is pretty good) and iTunes (but an incomplete, capricious iTunes). Question: is there a market for such weird beast?
Comments