Time Warner Wants Hulu To Stop Airing Current TV Shows

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
It seems that Time Warner told the Hulu that, if the company takes a 25% equity stake in Hulu, it wants episodes from current TV seasons off the service.

One of the things that has allowed Hulu to compete in the streaming video subscription market is the fact that it offers users the ability to watch some currently airing shows shortly after they’ve premiered on TV. But a new report claims that if content powerhouse Time Warner Inc. has its say, even Hulu subscribers may have to wait a long time before seeing recently aired shows.
 
is this a bye bye for Hulu? I dont have the service, but from what others are all telling me, is this is the number one reason they watch Hulu...to watch new shows.
 
It seems that Time Warner told the Hulu that, if the company takes a 25% equity stake in Hulu, it wants episodes from current TV seasons off the service.

One of the things that has allowed Hulu to compete in the streaming video subscription market is the fact that it offers users the ability to watch some currently airing shows shortly after they’ve premiered on TV. But a new report claims that if content powerhouse Time Warner Inc. has its say, even Hulu subscribers may have to wait a long time before seeing recently aired shows.

Well then, Time Warner can go fuck itself.
 
is this a bye bye for Hulu? I dont have the service, but from what others are all telling me, is this is the number one reason they watch Hulu...to watch new shows.

That's precisely the reason why I have a Hulu subscription. I've had a shit ton of DVR's croak on me over the years and Hulu allows me to keep up with my shows when that happens. Additionally, Hulu also lets me watch these shows from mobile devices, so that's another plus for it.

If I couldn't watch current shows from it, I'd cancel my account immediately. I'd have no use for it over Netflix. (I currently have both for different reasons.) In fact, if Hulu added a few more things I'd be able to ditch U-Verse TV entirely.
 
Hulu is among the only services offering current-season shows.
It's really the only reason, imho, to subscribe to it.

TWC seems to want to protect its investment in terrestrial cable contracts but cutting off its proverbial nose.
 
This just in...TimeWarner realized that people don't like paying for highly lucrative cable TV packages. Executives try to thwart growth of HULU by restricting most popular content to protect profits.

#colorMeSurprised
 
Time Warner can get bent. Come to think of it, so can the other big cable companies.
 
Reverse the buy out and have Hulu buy Time Warner, shut down the cable side and go full on streaming. Take that TWC. :D
 
If I'm not mistaken, TW really has no say in this. It is between the broadcast company (CBS, UPN, FOX, etc.) and Hulu.
 
Well then, Time Warner can go fuck itself.
Couldn't have said it better, myself. Nothing Time Warner owns interests me in the least, so they can take their TV properties and shove it for all I care.
 
Why buy equity in a company only to restrict it's ability to generate revenue so much? What's the ROI here?
 
...If I couldn't watch current shows from it, I'd cancel my account immediately. I'd have no use for it over Netflix. (I currently have both for different reasons.) In fact, if Hulu added a few more things I'd be able to ditch U-Verse TV entirely.

Which is precisely why they want the current shows pulled. They want consumers to double pay for content. Oh what's that you missed this weeks episode? Well wait for the complete season to come out on dvd/blu-ray for only $32.99!

Cable TV is one of the biggest scams in this country, along with the banks, stock market, etc. Not only do the individual customers shell out well over $1000 a year for this stuff, the company then turns around and sells ad space to make even more money off the content which they won't disclose cause god forbid the individual customers (or even the creators themselves) learn how much they make off them. I just find it funny that Netflix can produce their own quality content and be fine with my 7-10$ a month.
 
Why buy equity in a company only to restrict it's ability to generate revenue so much? What's the ROI here?

So they can buy the rest of it once its bankrupt. This way, instead of paying a premium for something you are likely to kill off, you only shell out a fraction of the price not to mention avoiding legal issues.
 
I just find it funny that Netflix can produce their own quality content and be fine with my 7-10$ a month.

Except Netflix isn't fine. Their financials are on very shaky ground and they owe over $10 billion (with a b) in back license fees they funded through corporate bonds. Some of those bonds will start maturing soon. Expect price hikes in the near future.
 
damn, that is the only reason why I have hulu, so I can watch current shows without having a dvr service. If this happened I guess my newsgroup account will be getting a lot more use.
 
Except Netflix isn't fine. Their financials are on very shaky ground and they owe over $10 billion (with a b) in back license fees they funded through corporate bonds. Some of those bonds will start maturing soon. Expect price hikes in the near future.

Pretty sure they've already announced a small price increase in the near future that people will not be grandfathered out of. Or perhaps just those that are currently grandfathered will not be anymore. Not positive which.
 
Why buy equity in a company only to restrict it's ability to generate revenue so much? What's the ROI here?

I suppose they figure they make more from their cable subscribers then they do by investing in Hulu. Cheaper to buy into Hulu to control policy, while still getting a slice of Hulu action, and still protect their own broadcasting action.
 
Time Warner is not Time Warner Cable.
One is an actual media company, the other is a service company. TWC is no longer part of Time Warner. Only in name and practice are they related.
 
I suppose they figure they make more from their cable subscribers then they do by investing in Hulu. Cheaper to buy into Hulu to control policy, while still getting a slice of Hulu action, and still protect their own broadcasting action.

I suppose we need another regulation, as much as I am generally against too many of those.

Large investors in a company should act in the best interests of the company in which they invest. Investment where a conflict of interest exists where the investor will only seek to devalue the shares of other interest holders should not be allowed. It isn't fair to the other owners of the company.
 
So Time Warner, that is a monopoly in many areas, wants to shut out a competitor, Hulu, to become even more of a monopoly? I don't even watch TV shows any more. TW can suck it.

Tighten your grip, and more will slip through your fingers.
 
and this is what sucks about publicly traded companies....assuming they can get the stock they can make stupid decisions.
 
I'll cancel my Hulu subscription. If enough subscribers cancel, TW will loose their money. Vote with your wallet.
 
I would drop my premium sub immediately. The 1 day lag is reasonably close enough that I don't bother pirating TV anymore.

If they just become the netflix of TV shows I'll just go back to torrents and save $14 a month.
 
I got a warning letter from TWC for pirating the final episode of The 100 season 2 right after the season ended.
 
Well then, Time Warner can go fuck itself.

+1
Agree wholeheartedly.

The only reason I have Hulu is to be able to watch current shows, and I pay extra for no commercials. I really don't want to have to use different apps for every network, not be able to miss two to three weeks of a show and then catch up when *I* want to, etc.

And I will NOT be watching commercials.

As it stands, NBC/ABC/Fox/CW at least get paid a little extra (through their stake in Hulu) for me watching their shows sans commercials. With CBS and their shows (which aren't on Hulu), I still DVR everything -- which can be done OTA via my ATSC antenna, if I so choose -- and then have ShowAnalyzer remove all the commercials automatically. They have the choice of getting some revenue, or no revenue.

As a lot of this has to do with TW being scared of people cutting the cord and no longer purchasing those channels that have basically no material that is really WORTH streaming as a separate entity, I think one of the best solutions to the problem is to hope/encourage the courts and the FCC to force their hand by MAKING them start selling channel a la carte and quit ALLOWING them to force channel bundles down our throats. If they do this, I'd keep probably 20-25 channels out of the 400+ we have right now, which I suspect is probably true for a lot of people (out of those who actually still have cable).

What TW needs to understand is that many of these channels ARE going to fail and ARE going to go bankrupt over the next few years -- they simply don't have the viewership to warrant them sticking around.

The other issue is that most of their content *is* available for download illegally, often at as good or better quality than what is available from their streaming services, and with the commercials already removed. That said, it takes effort to find it and download it, and there is a legal risk involved. For these reasons, I would greatly prefer to actually PAY the providers for their content, but their is a certain pricing threshold where they will start rapidly losing paying customers (i.e. when the cost of a good non-logging VPN and Tor proxy are WAY cheaper than their content).

Eventually, the cable companies are going to have to realize that their business model is changing and a lot of it is going away (and probably so is a lot of their revenue).

Personally, I hope that some of the big boys are forced to near the point of bankruptcy (or beyond it).
 
Again some archaic corporation trying to piss against the wind. You have to adapt to progress instead of trying to stop it.
 
Well then, Time Warner can go fuck itself.

Agreed.

I pay for commercial free Hulu Plus and if they manage to get recently aired episodes pulled, my Hulu subscription will promptly end.

Why in the hell do they think would I pay a monthly fee for old content?
 
Note, this is TimeWarner, the owners of things like HBO and Warner Bros and not Time Warner Cable
 
If Hulu dumps current shows, I dump Hulu. Easy as that. TWC can fuck right off to hell where they belong.
 
Totally defeats the purpose of Hulu. I recently upgraded to their commercial free option. Without the new shows, I'd drop my sub without question.
 
Why buy equity in a company only to restrict it's ability to generate revenue so much? What's the ROI here?

If they kill the service they may get more cable subscriptions. I suspect one cable subscriber is worth a lot more to TWC than a handful of Hulu users.
 
I also just subscribed to Hulu for the commercial free option. If Hulu doesn't have current shows, there is no point in keeping the service. Netflix and Amazon Prime have plenty of content.
 
I suppose we need another regulation, as much as I am generally against too many of those.

Large investors in a company should act in the best interests of the company in which they invest. Investment where a conflict of interest exists where the investor will only seek to devalue the shares of other interest holders should not be allowed. It isn't fair to the other owners of the company.

Define best interest. Almost no choice made by a board is to help the business, but just helps their own pockets. Otherwise you would see more money put back into companies like wireless companies to upgrade networks or stuff like that.

I'll cancel my Hulu subscription. If enough subscribers cancel, TW will loose their money. Vote with your wallet.

In the long run that is what they are wanting to do. They want Hulu to go out of business and have to shut down. This is no different from any other hostile takeover. They aren't trying to make money, they are spending money to get rid of Hulu. No more Hulu means less legal ways to get content online without waiting 1 year.
 
If they kill the service they may get more cable subscriptions. I suspect one cable subscriber is worth a lot more to TWC than a handful of Hulu users.

No, people will start to pirate the shows, or stop watching them, so it's a lose lose for everyone but the pirates.

we recently upgraded our cable tv since it was slightly cheaper than just phone, internet, and basic tv, and they are going all digital for TV so each tv will be requiring a box to watch cable.

I personally haven't watched a tv show live in a number of years, I just download it and watch when I feel like it.
used to do that back in the VCR days too, have my VCR record my shows then watch them later so I could fast forward through the commercials.
 
I suppose they figure they make more from their cable subscribers then they do by investing in Hulu. Cheaper to buy into Hulu to control policy, while still getting a slice of Hulu action, and still protect their own broadcasting action.

Note that this is Time Warner the network and not Time Warner Cable making this request (they are separate companies now) ... the article indicates that Time Warner is worried about the licensing fees they collect from the Cable companies and that having new shows will devalue their licensing fees since outside of HBO they don't have any other channels they can license directly to users for maximum returns ... however, as the article also states, there isn't much either Hulu or TW can do about these deals as the actual content owners determine whether their materials will have current episodes or not
 
Back
Top