I can't mark the exact moment when I made Hulu one of the regular stops during my web-drenched day, but I do know that it was sometime around two years ago. While I'll certainly stop by YouTube to check out the latest UGC meme or dig up some video of brilliant obscurity, Hulu is more top of mind for me simply because the superior content. It's also a great looking site with user-friendly features and palatable ad model, but more than anything it has a lot of great current shows that you can catch online.
So it makes a lot of sense that the Google/YouTube brain trust would at least seriously consider ways to beef up its TV offerings. But is charging for streaming content the way to go?
Let the bloggers have their voice:
* All Things Digital: YouTube already lets users watch a smattering of TV shows for free, with advertising. Now it envisions something similar to what Apple and Amazon already offer: First-run shows, without commercials, for $1.99 an episode, available the day after they air on broadcast or cable.
* Mashable: Certainly, this is a big issue. If, for the same price, I could own a show via iTunes as opposed to stream it via YouTube, I’d choose iTunes every time. On the other hand, if I could watch it on YouTube for less, I’d likely go there, as I only want to watch most shows once. Whether or not a middle ground can be reached will likely determine if this service will ever come to fruition.
* VentureBeat: Google already streams some TV content free on YouTube, but it doesn’t carry current shows the way the successful Hulu does. Lately, YouTube traffic has been flattening, while Hulu shot up 50 percent in October.
* bub.blicio.us: Now, the reason I will occasionally buy shows from iTunes is that I then have the freedom to watch them on my phone, my iPod, my TV, or my laptop. I can watch the show on an airplane because it’s local to my device. Personally, I hate the idea of paying $1.99 for streaming content. So until they figure things out, I’ll definitely stick to free Hulu for the television that I miss and downloading episodes from iTunes for television on the go.
* technovia: No doubt that Google’s cheerleaders will be racing to claim that this is a daring move, and certainly doesn’t try and impose any kind of artificial scarcity like that nasty old-fashioned Mr Murdoch is trying to do for news. After all, it’s hard to find TV shows for free on the Internet, right?
(this post originally appeared on Technorati)
