Decabled: Hulu forced off Boxee

Feb 20, 2009

Image representing Boxee as depicted in CrunchBase

The folks at Boxee announced that they are being forced to remove Hulu support from Boxee at the request of Hulu's content partners...

Hulu posted this as their reason:

Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product, and we are respecting their wishes. While we stubbornly believe in this brave new world of media convergence — bumps and all — we are also steadfast in our belief that the best way to achieve our ambitious, never-ending mission of making media easier for users is to work hand in hand with content owners (Hulu).

What platform is next?

I cannot understand this. I spent most of the day trying to find just one rational reason for a content partner to ask a web service to block a platform. I couldn't think of one.

This is tantamount to saying, I don't want my web content visible in Internet Explorer or Firefox. Maybe I am missing the point of Hulu entirely.

Isn't Hulu about making money?

Image representing hulu as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Unless I am horribly wrong, the purpose of Hulu to make video available to viewers in an easy to use way so their content providers could make money off of the ads. Am I wrong?

Well Hulu says:

Hulu's mission is to help people find and enjoy the world's premium video content when, where and how they want it. As we pursue this mission, we aspire to create a service that users, advertisers, and content owners unabashedly love (Hulu).

The need to rewrite that mission statement a bit. Here let me help.

Hulu's mission is to help people find and enjoy the world's premium video content when, where and how they want it as long as they only visit our site through approved browsers. As we pursue this mission, we aspire to create a service that users, advertisers, and content owners unabashedly love.

There, that is more like what they are actually doing.

Contact them and their partners:

Let them know how you feel about them banning an browser from their service. The next thing you know, they will have to scan for a media center before they allow access to their video.