Postavant

If you go to Hulu.com, you will realize that the subtitle is “Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free.” The bright executives that reap the rewards of Hulu, or not, since apparently it’s not all that profitable, don’t really like this mantra. In 2010, Hulu is going to axe the “for free” part, and what has became a revolutionary service that gives all the benefits of illegal pirating but legally and safely, will become just another flash in the pan that will die a painful death. What they don’t realize is that it is not about the skimpy amounts of advertisements, which aren’t all that skimpy but less than what television provides, don’t make people use it. It is the ability to watch things anytime, for free, which TV can never match. Adding more advertisements and commercials to the site would not kill it, it would make the bottom line larger but would hardly alienate anyone. I can boldly proclaim though that if you make people pay for Hulu, then it will fade fast. Same with Facebook and every other site that is considering a pay model, citing that people think they are “entitled” to free services on the internet, but in a competitive marketplace, especially one like the internet, if you start charging, someone else can do what you do for free.

Broadcasting and Cable is reporting that News Corp Deputy Chaircam Chase Carey said at a business summit that since the free model doesn’t make them enough money, they will start charging on a subscription basis. He cites that customers will appreciate the value, not realizing that this is the internet, if you aren’t playing World of Warcraft, chances are that you don’t appreciate paying for anything. Why pay for porn when a million sites have it for free? Why pay for online versions of magazines and newspapers when free blogs out there exist with the same content in quantity and quality? Why pay for TV shows when a million sites have them for free?

Popularity: unranked [?]

Tags: 2010, commercials, free videos, free websites, greed, Hulu, Hulu charge, Hulu free, News Corp, subscription

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.