Here’s the money quote from NewsCorpian Chase Carey, so there’s no confusion:
It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online. I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business
An optimist might interpret this as a move toward tiered access, or even the decidedly good addition of paid premium content, like HBO and Showtime. But read carefully:
It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online
It doesn’t get any less premium than broadcast content, which is exactly what Carey says we’ll soon be paying for — sometime in 2010, he supposes. This is extra-extra-foreboding next to last week’s statements about a paid Hulu from Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, highlighted by TVBizwire: “That’s not an if,” he said “that’s a when.” It was fun while it lasted, I guess.
On a totally unrelated note, here are some neat articles, for pleasure reading! [Broadcasting Cable via TVBizwire]
Elly Hart
October 23, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Oh just great. If we do somehow happen to get Hulu in Australia, it won’t even be free anymore!
Report PermalinkGW
October 23, 2009 at 10:12 AM
Peoeple will not pay to watch TV, they just wont.
Report Permalinkexept for DVDs. If they start charging for Hulu people will just go to BitTorrents.
Cam
October 23, 2009 at 4:17 PM
Who the hell is gonna pay for that? Why on earth would these people not just download the shows using BitTorrent?
Hah! Yeah, good luck with that, News Corp.
Report Permalinkurl404
October 23, 2009 at 7:15 PM
silver lining wise, it might mean there will be less links to hulu vids on pages we frequent.
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