Could Hulu Be in Trouble?

Some sad news out, GE is moving forward on a deal between Comcast and NBC.

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Under the terms of that deal, Comcast would own 51 percent of the new entity, which would combine NBC Universal’s broadcast network, theme parks, movie studio, and cable-television channels USA, Bravo, CNBC and MSNBC with Comcast cable networks E! Entertainment, Versus and Golf Channel.

What does this mean for Hulu?

Hulu would then have 2/3 of their owners more interested in the company going away rather then succeeding.

Comcast is interested in keeping the public watching appointment TV and paying for a cable bill, putting their interests against Hulu.

Disney owners of ABC have a long history of ownership issues which is only furthered by the odd change in Hulu’s direction with their acquisition this year.  This season’s lessening of Hulu with many shows on a one week delay and the things going down with yanking Eastwick.

I’m not so concerned that Hulu would get shut down overnight.  What I do see as a possible future is a slow corruption in the quality of the product.  Lessening and restricting Hulu from making the advances necessary to grow it’s audience share.  This would allow it to become insignificant and to fade away.

With hope I want to believe that Hulu’s success will keep them from taking this great product away from everyone.  Hope is not enough.

How do we move forward?

What steps do you recommend we take to help the big studios see the value in offering shows streaming online and the value in services like Hulu which can aggregate those shows into a good player?

(via NewTeeVee)