Hulu Content Pulled from TV.com & Boxee
By Alexander Grundner |
February 18th, 2009
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Uh-oh. It looks like something big is going down with Hulu and its content providers that’s already causing ripples throughout the industry. Earlier this morning news (here, here, and here) that TV.com was dropped as a Hulu video distribution partner sparked controversy with people speculating that it might be a move to squash TV.com’s growth. However, we have now received word from the folks at Boxee that they’ve also been asked to cease streaming Hulu content to their users. In fact, Hulu has just made an official statement as to why they’ve dropped distribution to some of their partner websites. Below is an excerpt of their post.
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. Without their content, none of what Hulu does would be possible, including providing you content via Hulu.com and our many distribution partner websites.
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The maddening part of writing this blog entry is that we realize that there is no immediate win here for users. Please know that we take very seriously our role of representing users such that we are able to provide more and more content in more and more ways over time. We embrace this activity in ways that respect content owners’ — and even the entire industry’s — challenges to create great content that users love. Yes, it’s a complex matter. A tough mission, and a never-ending one, but one we are passionately committed to.
UPDATE 1: There’s word that Boxee users will still be able to view Hulu content using a third-party plugin called TV Library — it’s just not as slick as the native interface.
UPDATE 2: Hulu (hack) plugin released by XBMC developers (work in progress)
Tags: Boxee, Hulu, TV.com
Filed in: Content Providers, Industry Buzz