Hulu prepping Apple iPad app, sources say

[zap2]

Really? So the cable you pay for to access content like MTV and such, should be ad free?

Lol, Do you think money grows on trees? People need to get paid. I guess a bunch of liberal hippies think that everything should be free. I think the iPad app will flourish with a subscription model. Vote with your wallet.

No reason to turn to personal attacks...the issue here is profit for hulu, since they have been turning on recently, it would make sense their current business model is working.

However expanding to a subscription model makes sense too(charge a fee like netflix), but I'm not going to pay them along with ads, when they can pull a profit from just ads.

 

[rtay]

its not that there are ads and they are making you pay, its that i have already paid for this content several times and dont want to again. why cant this be apart of my #70 cable bill?

 

[flyguy206]

TV shows are supported by ads. By downloading torrents, you are skipping the ads, and stealing the show. It is illegal. It is not network BS. It is not an opinion whether it's right or wrong. It's the law.

Some shows cost $5-$6 million an episode and you think you have the right to download it for free? Every week, a group of writers, directors, actors, and a whole crew put on a show to entertain you and you think they are ripping you off by asking you to pay for it? The nerve.

So you are ok with hulu charging us for network tv.

 

[Kingcodez]

I don't care if hulu charges or not, it's cheaper than the monthly cable bill, and hopefully with charging, they will add more content and archived shows.

 

[drjsway]

So you are ok with hulu charging us for network tv.

iTunes charges you for network TV. If you want to watch it for free, turn on the TV or use Hulu on your laptop

They are not entitled to offer it on the iPad. If you don't want to subscribe, then don't.

BTW, if you had read my post, you'd know that the only reason why Hulu is available at all is to deter piracy, even though it's far less profitable than viewers watching on TV. They have no incentive to offer it for free on a device that can't download pirated shows in the first place.

 

[drjsway]

its not that there are ads and they are making you pay, its that i have already paid for this content several times and dont want to again. why cant this be apart of my #70 cable bill?

Because your cable bill goes to your cable company, not the networks.

 

[SchneiderMan]

If this happens my iPad will be complete

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Because your cable bill goes to your cable company, not the networks.

...and part of that money goes to the networks. Cable/Satellite Cos. have to pay the networks in order to have their service. They negotiate a fee, and the saving are passed on to the subscribers.

As for wether torrents are piracy when it comes to TV shows. Well that's a gray area. Those big budget shows/networks get their money from ads and licensing fees initially. They get paid wether you watch the ads or not. Where piracy comes into play is in the after-market (or DVD/BR sales.) When you are downloading a torrent, you aren't buying a DVD. That's where the piracy is. However, what if you recorded a show on VHS, DVD-R, etc. for later viewings. Piracy? again, a gray area. It's all a matter of perspective.

All I know is that I'm tired of paying lot for cable, and the only things that are watched are kid shows (and football, when it's in season.)

Just my 2¢

 

[Eye4Desyn]

Hulu should go subscription.

They just need to start adding archived. I want to be able to watch all seasons of the shows you have.

I'll pay 4.99 a month, and you can include the ads. If they just included all the episodes for whatever show you have.

IE: If I wanted to watch modern family from the beginning I could. Instead of the last 5 episodes.

I'd even pay .. 7.99 a month for something like this with ads.

Edit: There are so many cheap people on these forums. Hulu provides a great service, do you think everything should be handed to you for free? lol.. Jesus.

I can understand where you're coming from regarding the perceived "cheaping out". I do know there is other technology around the corner that would not add on more $$ for the content that I am already paying for. Case in point: ATT U-verse. They (ATT) are currently in the works to having an iPhone/iPad app http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/24/atandt-u-verse-mobile-getting-upgraded-download-your-recordings-o/ that would allow current subscribers to stream DVR recorded shows (i.e. full season of Modern Family or other shows) via Wi-Fi to their devices at no extra cost. I'm currently an ATT U-verse subscriber and to me this is a value add to the service I'm already paying for. True, not eveyone has U-Verse with a DVR. However, a subscription based Hulu like the one you describe would be an excellent alternative. NTL, I just wanted to clarify/justify why I wouldn't want to pay for this.

 

[pooryou]

Really? So the cable you pay for to access content like MTV and such, should be ad free?

Yes, of course it should. It's already quality-free though, so I don't care.

 

[ashVID]

Wow, massive ignorance and so much to address. First off, some shows (granted only a handful) actually make MORE money thru hulu.com than thru TV (Simpsons, Family Guy, a few others). Second, why is the outrage over a pay model not directed toward Apple? It was solely and exclusively their decision not to include flash. Was it a processor/battery decision? Maybe. But maybe it was a "we want to sell episodes thru iTunes" not give them away thru flash sites like hulu. Why is nobody yelling at Apple for selling "free" TV shows?

Since hulu is not iPad ready, it has to be re-worked, that is not free. They also need a different advertising model based on portable devices. I highly doubt the time on site is going to be near what it is on the main site and the ads will likely not monetize the same way. Hence, there is a much greater cost to deliver the content. Look at Apple's new iAd, that is the future of mobile advertising.

Lastly, nobody is making you use hulu thru your iPad/iPhone. It's a convenience. That is what you are paying for. You are free to record it on your DVR, rip it to your computer, compress it for your mobile device and sync it thru iTunes at no additional cost to yourself. THAT is what you are paying for, you are not paying to watch "free" TV. You are paying for the delivery method, ease of use and ultimately convenience.

Let's imagine the entire universe of hulu is available on iPad, what is that worth? To some, nothing. To others, it might be $20 a month. I would probably be OK with $10 even with ad support. It's funny how fickle we get after we get something for free. A single DVD is $15-$20, heck, downloading most movies is still $10.

It's all relative people. Imagine that DVDs were free for the next year, then, they started charging for them again. Some people would be OUTRAGED even if the charge was $3 per title.




ash =o)

 

[noah82]

That is a good point...Apple should take some of the blame for this.

 

[drjsway]

...and part of that money goes to the networks. Cable/Satellite Cos. have to pay the networks in order to have their service. They negotiate a fee, and the saving are passed on to the subscribers.

Broadcast networks typically do not get a fee from the cable company. That may be changing, though most affiliates still don't.

As for wether torrents are piracy when it comes to TV shows. Well that's a gray area. Those big budget shows/networks get their money from ads and licensing fees initially. They get paid wether you watch the ads or not.

If you are not a TV viewer, their ratings go down and their advertising rates go down. Look at Heroes. One if the most pirated shows of the year yet it will be cancelled because it has only 4 million live viewers.

Wow, massive ignorance and so much to address. First off, some shows (granted only a handful) actually make MORE money thru hulu.com than thru TV (Simpsons, Family Guy, a few others).

This is false. Simpsons (and a few others) charges more per ad on Hulu than on TV but they make far more money on TV simply because there are more ads per episode than Hulu.

Second, why is the outrage over a pay model not directed toward Apple? It was solely and exclusively their decision not to include flash

This is also false. Hulu has blocked access to all mobile devices with flash support and if the iPad had flash, it would be blocked as well.

 

[gwynne]

If you are not a TV viewer, their ratings go down and their advertising rates go down. Look at Heroes. One if the most pirated shows of the year yet it will be cancelled because it has only 4 million live viewers.

Yeah, but let's be fair: other shows that suck less get huge ratings AND huge amounts of pirating (see: House). Heroes earned that cancellation.

You're also making a false leap about the average downloader and ratings. The Nielsen ratings (from which all tv ratings are derived) come from a tiny fraction of U.S. households--most people reading this thread will never personally have ANY influence on television ratings, for good or ill. And when you're a real Nielsen household they are very hardcore about it--they install monitoring equipment on your televisions and everything. Why would anyone go along with this if they didn't actually watch conventional television?

Don't get me wrong, I've had more than one show I love go down in flames because of low ratings, but good shows were getting cancelled due to poor ratings way before it could be blamed on downloading.

 

[drjsway]

Yeah, but let's be fair: other shows that suck less get huge ratings AND huge amounts of pirating (see: House). Heroes earned that cancellation.

You're also making a false leap about the average downloader and ratings. The Nielsen ratings (from which all tv ratings are derived) come from a tiny fraction of U.S. households--most people reading this thread will never personally have ANY influence on television ratings, for good or ill. And when you're a real Nielsen household they are very hardcore about it--they install monitoring equipment on your televisions and everything. Why would anyone go along with this if they didn't actually watch conventional television?

Don't get me wrong, I've had more than one show I love go down in flames because of low ratings, but good shows were getting cancelled due to poor ratings way before it could be blamed on downloading.

I agree Heroes sucked this year but that's irrelevant. According to this, Heroes was the most pirated show of 2009 and doesn't even compare to the piracy rates of House.

The most pirated show is also one of the lowest rated shows on network television. Are you telling me there is no correlation at all?

 

[/dev/toaster]

I will pay a few bucks for the app it self, but no way in hell am I going to pay a subscription unless its *really* cheap like $4 a month.

 

[gwynne]

The most pirated show is also one of the lowest rated shows on network television. Are you telling me there is no correlation at all?

If there's a correlation, it's something like "scifi viewers are more likely to download" or "the crappy season meant people were watching something else live in the same timeslot and downloaded it later". Otherwise, other commonly downloaded shows would be taking a ratings nosedive too. You need more way data points if you're going to try to sell this one. Pretty sure the Heroes ratings started freefalling a long time ago.

 

[calsci]

I seriously hope this is true. i can't wait for this. This would probably be as popular as the netflix app

 

[barkomatic]

Really? So the cable you pay for to access content like MTV and such, should be ad free?

Lol, Do you think money grows on trees? People need to get paid. I guess a bunch of liberal hippies think that everything should be free. I think the iPad app will flourish with a subscription model. Vote with your wallet.

In fact, I don't pay cable to watch ads since I don't have cable at all. I watch free, broadcast TV with commercials. I don't mind commercials on free TV because its ad supported entertainment.

How come when I watch a show with commericals on broadcast TV its perfectly acceptable to you but the prospect of watching a show for free with just as many commercials on a portable device is offensive and cheap?

I, and many others *will* vote with our wallets and I never suggested anything else. I really don't think most people will support a Hulu subscription service that includes commercial content. Especially since individual networks are likely to undermine this model by creating their own free ipad applications.

The part where you accuse me of being a liberal who thinks money "grows on trees" really cracks me up. Good joke.

 

[pooryou]

Second, why is the outrage over a pay model not directed toward Apple? It was solely and exclusively their decision not to include flash. Was it a processor/battery decision? Maybe. But maybe it was a "we want to sell episodes thru iTunes" not give them away thru flash sites like hulu. Why is nobody yelling at Apple for selling "free" TV shows?

How would you explain the free ABC app being available at launch? Apple makes its money on hardware; if it gets more people to buy iPads, they are happy.

The 'solely and exclusively' bit is false as well I'm afraid.

 

[drjsway]

How come when I watch a show with commericals on broadcast TV its perfectly acceptable to you but the prospect of watching a show for free with just as many commercials on a portable device is offensive and cheap?

Just as many commercials? Not enough close. Hulu has 2-3 minutes of commercials per hour. An hour long show on television has 18-20 minutes.

And the whole Apple argument is ridiculous. HULU BLOCKS ALL MOBILE DEVICES, REGARDLESS OF FLASH.

 

[pooryou]

Just as many commercials? Not enough close. Hulu has 2-3 minutes of commercials per hour. An hour long show on television has 18-20 minutes.

Yeah but the broadcast ones simply get fast forwarded through. I pity anyone who actually watches commercials nowadays: welcome to the 21st century, people.

 

[barkomatic]

Just as many commercials? Not enough close. Hulu has 2-3 minutes of commercials per hour. An hour long show on television has 18-20 minutes.

And the whole Apple argument is ridiculous. HULU BLOCKS ALL MOBILE DEVICES, REGARDLESS OF FLASH.

You may have missed an earlier post of mine where I stated that I would be willing to sit through 18-20 minutes of commercials if playing on a Hulu iPad application. Commercials are no big deal to me if I get something in return.

 

[dagomike]

It will be interesting to see what the paid version offers. If they expect people to pay just because it's an iPad, then no. If they offer a complete library of new and old shows, then yeah there may be something there.

 

[otis123]

I don't want a subscription, I will watch the ads, but I want the hulu app yesterday.