Hulu Plus Is Considering Cutting Back on Ads

Grahamkracka said:
The only way I will get a Hulu sub is if there are no ads. Otherwise there's no point...at least I can skip ads with a DVR.
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SO you paid extra to get rid of ads on top of your cable bill? Your suggestion is that Hulu offer another level, "Free" -> a ton of ads. "Hulu+" more content with less ad frequency. "Hulu: my time is more important wasted on watching TV than 30 seconds of my life can afford".
 
TwiceOver said:
To each their own. I understand that the content holders set the price and there's really nothing Hulu/Netflix/Amazon can do about it. Would I pay double for an "Ad free Hulu" assuming the same content? No.
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Customers need to react negatively to the whole situation. If they don't eventually these online services will be indistinguishable from having cable. Cable didn't get the way it is overnight. It was a series of mostly small changes, any one of which wasn't a big deal.
 
Hulu is owned by Fox,NBC, and ABC. All they know is the traditional television schemes. It's kinda everyones fault who subscribed to Hulu in the first place for letting traditional broadcast TV grab a large stake in internet based TV.
 
Wierdo said:
Proud cable cutter here, why pay for 5 minutes of content separated by 5 minutes of ads, this is the modern age, Youtube is free. My mother's an old woman so it was harder for her at first, but now she wonders why she put up with it.

Hulu gonna meet the same fate in this new age of content consumption, people wont put up with that kinda bullshit anymore.
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I agree with this and similar comments.
It's come to a point of abuse, so many times I FORGOT what I was watching, what was going on.. its too many commercials. Other times, I will forget, switch channels, then later come back, and be like 'oh yeah, I was watching that'.

Absolute abuse.. Its astonishing anyone pays for cable.. when I watch it somewhere else, I truly feel, I should be paid for having their service.. or at the very least if should be free.
I don't know where the ad revenue goes.. probably mostly to the content producer.. but that money should cover the access for households.. Its truly obscene how many ads and garbage is out there.
 
Wrench said:
This, it's generally a commercial before one 15 minutes in one in the middle one towards the end all 30-60 seconds. Sometimes you get to pick what the commercial will be. If this allows them to keep up with content I am fine with it.
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I must be watching some different shows. Gotham, New Girl, Parks and Rec - all have about 5-6 breaks with repeating commercials (kids with cancer, picking up ocean, marriage equality...). I got to pick one type of commercial once (the new episode of Gotham with Target ads).

I'd welcome a commercial free experience. I don't care too much right now because I'm used to commercials. From cable in the 80's to satellite in the 90's/00's. I stopped that in 2010 and went streaming only. Only commercials I have now are on Hulu. I don't like them, but they've always been a necessary evil. But, with cable/sat - the commercials were to pay for content on the individual networks. The cable/sat bill was for delivering the content. Now, it's ISP and Hulu on top of commercials.
 
I'm currently ok with watching ads for shows that are on the current season. What I would like to be changed is removing ads for previous seasons and fixing the issue where the stream is interrupted and the ad plays over again.

Oh I wouldn't mind mixing up the ads a bit more. I get tired of watching the same ads over and over.
 
PornoSatan said:
Hulu is owned by Fox,NBC, and ABC. All they know is the traditional television schemes. It's kinda everyones fault who subscribed to Hulu in the first place for letting traditional broadcast TV grab a large stake in internet based TV.
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Its not all they know... its what is most profitable. Netflix/Amazon are offering less then what they currently make. You wouldn't take the deals they are offering either.

As someone previously said, these companies over the years wiggled their way into as close to a print cash system as possible. They make money hand over fist with bundled garbage channels streamlined to a point where Oprah made a ton more more money moving her show to her own channel and filling the rest of the time up with cheap crap/reruns.

Thinking all these companies will just switch over and instantly save you 50-75% without commercials is not reasonable in the short term.

Basically what would have to happen is the same that happened to record industry.... sales and usage have to drop to dangerously levels forcing the industry to change AND have some major system where a fairly decent % of profits could be made (aka 1$ songs @ Apple app store for mp3 and Amazon).

It is slowly happening though... A little while ago HBO said they are thinking about selling HBO go to non-cable customers. This is a HUGE sign that cord cutting is more than an annoyance to the industry now. HBO does the math and they are seeing independent customers might be worth the battle with the major providers (cable/sat).
 
dandirk said:
A little while ago HBO said they are thinking about selling HBO go to non-cable customers. This is a HUGE sign that cord cutting is more than an annoyance to the industry now. HBO does the math and they are seeing independent customers might be worth the battle with the major providers (cable/sat).
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Amigo, HBO is not "battling with the major providers (cable/sat)", in ANY way shape or form.

HBO is owned and operated by Time-Warner. When Comcast completes its acquisition of TWC (and thereby HBO), you can bet on a complete reversal of that course. In short, HBO is nothing more than a unit of a major cable provider. It always has been too, before being owned by TWC, it was owned by Time Inc.
 
Skripka said:
Amigo, HBO is not "battling with the major providers (cable/sat)", in ANY way shape or form.

HBO is owned and operated by Time-Warner. When Comcast completes its acquisition of TWC (and thereby HBO), you can bet on a complete reversal of that course. In short, HBO is nothing more than a unit of a major cable provider. It always has been too, before being owned by TWC, it was owned by Time Inc.
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Maybe. Imagine if TWC can now sell HBO directly to their competitor's customers and eliminate the middle man (their competition)... I'm not saying that it is *going to happen*, but I wouldn't overlook it as a possibility just yet.
 
TwiceOver said:
Maybe. Imagine if TWC can now sell HBO directly to their competitor's customers and eliminate the middle man (their competition)... I'm not saying that it is *going to happen*, but I wouldn't overlook it as a possibility just yet.
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They need to do it before the competition.

I WANT HBO. I won't buy a full package plus HBO to get it. I would pay the $8-10 a month for it on it's own, though. There are a lot of potential customers out there. Not sure what agreements they have with providers or anything, but if it's possible, I would think that HBOGo for anyone would be a huge deal. My sister wanted it, but didn't want the full package. She pays my parents $10 a month to get HBO on their cable and just uses the HBOGo feature.

I think we're getting close to the tipping point for the TV industry. With Netflix/Hulu/Amazon gaining steam and cable sub's falling, it's becoming more apparent where things are going. Internet speeds are increasing (slowly) and streaming is very easy and cheap.

I'd pay $30-40 a month for streaming vs. $80-100 for satellite. I have Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime now (plus Crackle and others). That's $25 a month or so. Throw in OTA. If someone offered another service with more channels or HBO and I'm set. I really don't miss anything that I want to watch. Movies are usually Blu-ray, but I take advantage of free/cheap downloadable movies on iTunes, Amazon, Vudu...

With a Roku/Xbox/Playstation, it's EXTREMELY easy to use multiple services for all your TV needs. More and more people are finding this out.

Ads? It's a byproduct of a time that is fading away. My big question is how much will it raise the cost of Hulu Plus?
 
If I'm paying for it there had better be no ads. If you want to run a free service and support yourself with ads we can talk too but I'm not paying for it if I have to watch ads.
 
I just hit mute and come back when the ads are finished. Easy.
 
Skripka said:
Amigo, HBO is not "battling with the major providers (cable/sat)", in ANY way shape or form.

HBO is owned and operated by Time-Warner. When Comcast completes its acquisition of TWC (and thereby HBO), you can bet on a complete reversal of that course. In short, HBO is nothing more than a unit of a major cable provider. It always has been too, before being owned by TWC, it was owned by Time Inc.
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Sorry I used the word "battle" like that... situation and end result is the same.

HBO doesn't sell outside of cable/sat providers because it would cost them more money to do so either due to contract issues or reduction in price they could get from those providers.

The moment they can make more money selling outside of cable providers they will.

No matter who they were/are owned by, HBO is still offered by all major providers.

Can they change to some exclusive content after a parent company buyout/merger (and contracts expire or paid off)? Sure... lets cross that bridge etc.

HBO has been extremely aggressive against Netflix in the past, I think the CEO once said they would have to charge their customers $30 a month to get HBO content. Now there are rumors and news they might open up their content outside of their traditional distribution. I think that is telling.

I also am of the opinion that we would be lucky to pay 80+% of the current provider averages for no commercials, on-demand access and back-catalog availability.

People thinking they can pay $8 a month to 3 providers and get access to all content without commercials is crazy in my opinion. People have to stop watching TV more for that to happen.
 
To clarify, HBO is owned by Time Warner, which is a legally separate company from Time Warner Cable.

dandirk said:
People thinking they can pay $8 a month to 3 providers and get access to all content without commercials is crazy in my opinion. People have to stop watching TV more for that to happen.
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I agree. With advertising and subscription/carriage fees, TV networks generates over $100 billion a year in the USA. That funds a lot of original content and sports. Netflix does less than $4 billion a year from its US customers now; even if it gets 100% of US households at just $10/month that's basically just a CBS or an ESPN.

And in the bidding war for the most valuable TV asset, NFL football, anybody bidding without commercials will be at a large disadvantage to those who do have commercials.
 
Paying=ad free. Period. Will never accept anything less, let alone Hulu's incredibly intrusive form of advertising.
 
The internet doesn't lend itself to the same extortion models (forced advertising, limited channel availability etc) as a one-way medium (TV), yet these 20th Century business models are being imposed by some companies, absurdly, onto a 21st Century medium, with truly pathetic (e.g. Hulu) and/or catastrophic (e.g. Google) results. Every time you watch a commercial on Hulu you're putting another nail in the internet's coffin, and furthering the race to the bottom that is converting it into just an alternate delivery method for basic cable TV.
 
wabbitseason said:
Paying=ad free. Period. Will never accept anything less, let alone Hulu's incredibly intrusive form of advertising.
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It's a lazy cable cutters trade off. Cable is expensive and they pretty much force you to watch ads or fast forward through a plethora of them (which in a way...is still having to watch them). I have a htpc, and I can download or watch all those shows for free, but the convenience of just turning on my ps3 and easily going through my list is worth the $8 and a couple of ads. No searching, no worries of "gray area downloading" or trying to find the right quality video, no going to 4 or 5 different sites just to watch the small hand full shows I keep up with....

I agree too many ad's is BS, but even youtube makes you sit through ads. So one or 2 for a convenient and reliable HD stream is acceptable to me. If they didn't have nearly all the shows I like with new episodes available in like 12 hours I wouldn't pay for it either, so I can understand the argument.
 
JeffDC said:
The internet doesn't lend itself to the same extortion models (forced advertising, limited channel availability etc) as a one-way medium (TV), yet these 20th Century business models are being imposed by some companies, absurdly, onto a 21st Century medium, with truly pathetic (e.g. Hulu) and/or catastrophic (e.g. Google) results. Every time you watch a commercial on Hulu you're putting another nail in the internet's coffin, and furthering the race to the bottom that is converting it into just an alternate delivery method for basic cable TV.
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If you want their product/service, they will find a way to bend you over and force feed you junk. If they can't make piles of money doing it, they won't do it at all. I'm not saying anyone MUST just take it, but the choice is more what quality do you expect, how much are you willing to spend (including your time via ads), and how do you want to access it?

quality, price, convenience...pick 2.;)
 
westrock2000 said:
That's a dumb statement.

I was going to explain why, but it's just too dumb of a statement.
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Whoever told you the internet is or was created for watching videos and listening to music was lying to you. Therefore commercials to access this abuse can only be that much more abusive.
 
Also as mentioned in this thread, look at who Hulu is, and it's the only reason forced commercials are being presented as appropriate use or content for the internet.
 
Final point (promise) is a question: what if telephone companies decided to implement forced commercials before you could dial a telephone? If you tell me it's not legal for them to do that, because telephone traffic is regulated and protected as an essential (I'll avoid use of the term common carrier, since the term is widely misused today) utility, you would be 100% correct, and please congratulate yourself on already knowing the future of the internet.
 
JeffDC said:
Final point (promise) is a question: what if telephone companies decided to implement forced commercials before you could dial a telephone? If you tell me it's not legal for them to do that, because telephone traffic is regulated and protected as an essential (I'll avoid use of the term common carrier, since the term is widely misused today) utility, you would be 100% correct, and please congratulate yourself on already knowing the future of the internet.
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so what's your point? that the internet will be government regulated? corporations own the government now, so that'll never happen. :) Well, like the phone system. It'll be regulated, but not "for the people."
 
SticKx911 said:
so what's your point? that the internet will be government regulated? corporations own the government now, so that'll never happen. :) Well, like the phone system. It'll be regulated, but not "for the people."
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Government is and can be the only effective restraint on corporate profit motive, it is therefore the only way to prevent the exact same eventual fate as FM radio, cable TV and every other medium that is not regulated as a utility. To view the results of complete failure of that restraint all one needs to do is turn on your radio or basic cable TV and start changing channels.
 
JeffDC said:
It's going on three years since we cut the cord and it was easily the best mutual family decision we've ever made. Stress levels in the house have never recovered. :)
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wait... you paid a service that caused stress on your family?

welcome to the cord-cutter club! you are late but nonetheless.

I cut cord long ago. I can't remember how long ago, at least 10 years.

repeated ad, same programs again and again, ad that screams at you. all of these are available on 125 channels for only $60 month. wow.
 
I just downloaded the Hulu app on Android for shits and giggles. The issue I see isn't even ads; it's that the streaming quality sucks ass. The video literally looks like 480p or something on the "high" setting.
 
Megalith said:
I just downloaded the Hulu app on Android for shits and giggles. The issue I see isn't even ads; it's that the streaming quality sucks ass. The video literally looks like 480p or something on the "high" setting.
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That's because it is you're restricted to 480p unless you pay for hulu plus then you get HD.
 
I had thought that by paying for Hulu all the ads would disappear, but nope.
 
Bout time.

I don't want to pay $10/month to be forced to watch commercials when I can do more, with no commercials, on Netflix.

I subscribe to hulu when shows like QuickDraw and Awesomes renew. Otherwise I shut it down. There's nothing on TV today that is worth considering for me. And when they ask why I quit, I say "my #1 complaint is you are forcing me to watch commercials when I pay for it."

I don't care if it's 1/2 the # of commercials as the unpaid. I still hate it. If I wanted to put up with that crap I would go Crackle.
 
I watched an entire episode of Blacklist on my Roku last night, not a single commercial. Coincidence?
 
The thing is, TV was free back in the day because commercials footed the bill.

Then came HBO which in the day was commercial free if you ignored the occasional HBO Commercial but you had to get Cable for it and that cost extra as well. And of course the regular programing still had the commercials.

Then there were more paid TV services like Showtime, etc.

Then Cable started bundling packages like Sports packages.

Then came a serious challenger, Satellite but the Commercials are still there and the Bundles.

Now we have the internet and some commercial free content and people are starting to go that way. cord cutters rejoice. And now the commercials are coming and people run from them. At some point you would hope that the providers will see that the days of commercials are over, they drive away customers.

In the mean time I did see a commercial the other day that was delivered in the best way I have seen in a long while. It was displayed on an LCD screen imbedded into the gas pump while I was filling my car up. It was a beautiful thing, a commercial filling my "empty time", taking advantage of a captive audience that had nothing better to do at that moment. It was so unique to see a commercial not because they could force it on me because I wanted to watch a youtube video, but because they could fill an otherwise empty part of my day if only for a few moments.
Then came Cable
 
lcpiper said:
In the mean time I did see a commercial the other day that was delivered in the best way I have seen in a long while. It was displayed on an LCD screen imbedded into the gas pump while I was filling my car up. It was a beautiful thing, a commercial filling my "empty time", taking advantage of a captive audience that had nothing better to do at that moment. It was so unique to see a commercial not because they could force it on me because I wanted to watch a youtube video, but because they could fill an otherwise empty part of my day if only for a few moments.
Then came Cable
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I wonder how many readers are old enough to remember what FM radio was like when AOR ruled the day, or even broadcast TV before the 1980's in our country. We got 13 channels and most nights there was stuff actually worth watching on almost all of them. Google has some great archives, try reading TV listings from these decades. Just amazing live music concerts, variety shows etc. Today hundreds of channels exist and virtually nothing is worth watching on any of them. It's the only eventual fate for any medium ruled by profit and unprotected/unregulated as a utility. Remember when the TV cable coming into your house was strictly one-way?
 
JeffDC said:
Government is and can be the only effective restraint on corporate profit motive, it is therefore the only way to prevent the exact same eventual fate as FM radio, cable TV and every other medium that is not regulated as a utility. To view the results of complete failure of that restraint all one needs to do is turn on your radio or basic cable TV and start changing channels.
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You mean like the phone company that was charging my elderly (read didn't know any better) mother $125 for services we replace with VOIP for $30. Guess which one is not a regulated utility?
 
I ordered Hulu Plus about a year ago, tried to watch a show and the commercials annoyed me so much I cancelled 10 minutes later. I thought paying for it would be like Netflix which has no commercials. Ain't gonna pay for commercials. Fuck that.
 
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