Posted on 08/08/2016 3:28:45 PM PDT by seastay
There is an odd game of musical chairs happening in the world of streaming television. Hulu, the service co-owned by many of the major broadcasters, announced that it will be eliminating its free tier, moving to a subscription-only model. At the same time, Yahoo announced a new streaming service, "Yahoo View," which "features" Hulu, and will let viewers see the five most recent episodes of the big broadcast shows for free. So consumers will still have largely the same set of choices, just in different places, and paid for by a different set of corporate backers.
Hulu is co-owned by Walt Disney, 21st Century Fox, Comcast, and as of last week, Time Warner. These companies want to use Hulu as a hedge against Netflix, where they sell their content and compete for time and consumer dollars. Making Hulu subscription-only allows them to better position it as a premium service that can house original content. By shifting it's lowest margin ad-supported streaming over to Yahoo, Hulu's ownership reduces friction with its own TV advertisers and positions Verizon, which just acquired Yahoo, as a source of substantial future revenue.
Hulu will still have advertising. The two current paid tiers — $7.99 a month with some ads and completely ad-free at $11.99 a month — are going to remain. The free tier being eliminated didn't have nearly the library of either of these paid options, and it was web only. For now Yahoo View will also be desktop web only, although the company promised in its announcement that a mobile website and app are coming.
This pricing has always been one of the reasons Hulu has occupied a slightly awkward position. It's owned by incumbent players in the world of television, but offers many of the same disruptive features as other cord-cutting options. This new structure helps to remove some of that friction, creating a standalone Hulu that is accessible only to paying subscribers, while preserving the free option under the umbrella of a different corporation.
There’s a new conservative television channel that FReepers have been talking about for some months, but I forget the name. I would assume they have streaming.
Someone will pop along and tell you if they see this.
The best solution: 25mb internet speed. NFL replay, MLB baseball. CSPAN.
The best solution: 25mb internet speed. NFL replay, MLB baseball. CSPAN.
I thought they had already done this. The last time I went there it required a subscription, and that’s been some time back.
Get one of these and you won’t need cable or Hulu or Netflix
Have you checked out -
http://www.newsmaxtv.com
?
Thanks. I need to start watching it.
I haven’t watched tv in over a year. I use amazon prime and get my news here. But streaming would be nice.
No, wait. I still watch football on the TV and some of the debates I watched.
Netflix just went up on my streaming fee. Have wondered about switching to Hulu, mostly because I’ve seen practically all the movies on Netflix that I’m interested in.
Netflix has great documentaries, so I keep it going. But wonder if the paid Hulu movie selection is consistantly better than Netflix streaming? I’ve browsed Hulu but haven’t decided to switch yet.
Filmon.com the Free at top ,Live TV ,tons there
Same here.
Kind of dry presentation but the news readers are very easy on the eyes and no drama.
“There’s a new conservative television channel that FReepers have been talking about for some months, but I forget the name. I would assume they have streaming.”
==
You may be thinking of “One America News”?
http://www.oann.com/wheretowatch
Dry sounds good after listening to THREE hours of arguing for 15 years at Fox.
It’s reality TV with a neocon owner.
Thanks for that link.
I have Amazon Fire-—— I didn’t know you could get TV channels on it.
I’ll give it a shot. (Wish me luck,I’m as old as dirt.)
:-)
.
We live in the boonies with no cable and I’ve btdt with satellite years ago so I’m not going back to that. We started with netflix but went to hulu and like it much better. Didn’t even know there was a free version but we quickly jumped from the $8.99 to $11.99 but not because of the ads themselves but because it would freeze every time an ad came on. I don’t think we ever actually saw a complete ad/commercial.
“Netflix just went up on my streaming fee. Have wondered about switching to Hulu, mostly because I’ve seen practically all the movies on Netflix that I’m interested in.
Netflix has great documentaries, so I keep it going. But wonder if the paid Hulu movie selection is consistantly better than Netflix streaming? I’ve browsed Hulu but haven’t decided to switch yet.”
==
I’ve used both. I find Netflix doesn’t offer much in what I want to view (including their documetaries, which are quite limited in my thinkin’).
Hulu is better for old TV shows but, like NFlix, is overall choice is limited. I’m not into any current-pop “must-see TV”. Reality crap, aliens, cheapo movies, etc.
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