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C|Net Describes Hulu Countdown to Failure & NBC Return to iTunes

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 1:15 PM - by

The Hulu project developed by NBC and Fox as an alternative to iTunes will fail, according to Don Reisinger in his C|Net Blog. Neither company knows what viewers want, they have a legacy of giving them what they do not want, and Hulu, a diversion to put pressure on Apple, built with little Internet experience will end up frustrating the few viewers who use it.

Mr. Reisinger noted that not only has NBC not renewed its contract with Apple, but it declared that it has pulled all its content off YouTube and will place it all on Hulu ... when it finally goes live.

"There is no chance Hulu will ever become a success," Mr. Reisinger wrote. "And the reason is quite simple: it is being produced by two companies that have no idea what consumers want and are utterly unaware of how the Internet works."

Mr. Reissinger gave Hulu one year and explained in detail the sequence of events that will lead to its demise.

First, NBC is overly enamored with the quality of its shows and believes that people will flock to Hulu. Next, they've underestimated the effect of pulling content from YouTube, the most popular video sharing site on the planet. Next, the NBC executives will load Hulu up with commercials. Finally, frustrated viewers will give up on getting through a show amidst all the ads.

Mr. Reisinger doubted that NBC is fully committed to Hulu and saw the venture as a method to put political pressure on Apple. In the end, it will fail its viewers. "So why do I think this will happen? The answer is quite simple: NBC and News Corp. have a proven track record of doing the things we don't want them to do. Even worse, this is nothing more than a business ploy to put some pressure on Apple and YouTube and try to capitalize on all of that 'unhealthy pirating' they despise so much."

The result, he predicted, will be a miserable failure that will shake NBC's and News Corp's confidence in doing business on the Internet.

"Give it a year, all NBC programming will be back on iTunes and YouTube," he concluded.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:51 pm

Stupidity at its best. Like Apple really cares. Oh well I guess they'll just have to live and learn.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 945 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:56 pm

First they try to sell the drivel on iTunes. They actually make money, but decide it's not enough, so, then they want to a: give it away themselves; and b: sell it using a half-thought out service that as he predicts will fail within a year.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:28 pm

Yeah, stupidity. I find it hard to believe they can find advertisers that would pay in the neighborhood of $1-$1.50 per viewing, which is what they would get from selling through iTunes. And they have to pay for bandwidth and IT costs out of that ad money, it's not pure profit like it is through the iTunes store.

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State O'Decline said:

member since 08 Sep 2007 with 2 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:37 pm

Actually, Apple does care. That's the reason they are successful - and the reason that the arrogant and disconnected entertainment industry is unable to keep from shooting itself in the foot over and over again.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:42 pm

One of the major drawbacks to Hulu, as well as other endeavors by the entertainment companies, is the fragmentation they are creating. Each of these services is an archipelago designed to serve up the the products of its masters which just makes it less useful for potential customers. It is a bit like requiring a different TV set for watching each producer's products, placing a much greater burden on the cusotmer to hunt down where to find what the want. It is exactly the opposite of the type of aggregation that iTunes and cable and satellite networks provide.

I hope that Apple finds more ways to showcase the works of independents. This will not only allow better choice but, maybe, embarrass the majors into producing better content as well.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:24 pm

I'm 45 and hardly watch any TV at all anymore...but having a ball watching YouTube with the kids. I kind of think that if TV/movies don't start getting better soon, people are going to flock to Youtube with their iPhones and iTouches and AppleTVs to watch material that in many cases is way more entertaining than big studio productions...Oh wait, they're already doing that. To quote David Ogilvy: "The consumer is not a moron"...

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Mikuro said:

member since 15 Jun 2002 with 450 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:23 am

Guest wrote:
One of the major drawbacks to Hulu, as well as other endeavors by the entertainment companies, is the fragmentation they are creating. Each of these services is an archipelago designed to serve up the the products of its masters which just makes it less useful for potential customers.

Exactly. They'd do better to partner with existing services like Joost. Or, um, iTunes and YouTube. Yeah, that would also work.

I think Joost has real potential, though, and could accommodate corporations without placing undue burden on its users.

People will tolerate advertising, as they have done for decades. People will also tolerate paying, and in many different ways. What people won't tolerate is hassle. Many entertainment companies seem to forget that what they offer is not really important, much less necessary, to their customers' lives. Take convenience away from TV and people will just stop watching.

I tried to watch some Heroes episodes on NBC's web site last season. It was a pain. It never worked the first time, and when it finally did work, it didn't work well. It just wasn't worth the hassle.

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dualsub2006 said:

member since 30 Oct 2007 with 1 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:02 pm

"First, NBC shows sold more than any other shows on iTunes"

70% of TV shows sold on iTMS weren't from NBC

"Next, they give the content away for free!"

Not interested in watching it on my computer screen with ads attached. I'll DVR it if I can't get it from iTMS.

"Just like they have with television. Oh wait, you mean television is actually still around, and it is actually the most common way people get their shows?"

I watch very few shows when they are aired as it is usually not convenient for me. I DVR them and watch at my convenience. I FF right through all of the commercials.

"Too bad ipodobserver decided to quote an idiot."

Too bad that ipodobserver.com makes it all too easy for idiots to post comments on their stories.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2049 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Oct 31, 2007 12:08 am

dualsub2006 wrote:

Too bad that ipodobserver.com makes it all too easy for idiots to post comments on their stories.

Quite so and welcome to the Land of the Registered.

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