Platform Neutrality
I was out of town, on the town this past Friday night and missed the second episode of "Fringe". No big deal because I'm trying out HuluPlus for a month, so I was covered, right? WRONG. (I had a minor meltdown on Twitter, see the feed on the right) Last week after the first episode I was able to watch the premiere on my computer, but this week I go and the show is not available the site redirected me to Fox.com and there it says to put in your Dish Network log-in to access the show otherwise you could watch the show on Hulu eight day after the show aired.
What is the point of this? This season Fox has some shows available On-Demand and "Fringe" is one of them, which means that within 24 hours of the live airing the show is available to any with the On-Demand channel. And yet, not available on HuluPlus. This is something that I don't understand. On Hulu Fox shows are already behind the paywall of HuluPlus why compound the restrictions and only for certain shows? "Terra Nova" is behind the wall (though I question that move since it would make since to make it free at least initially to garner more eyeballs on a really expensive production), "Raising Hope" too. I know that there are restrictions on what shows are available across devices, like smartphone versus iPad and gaming consoles.
I don't know if this deal that Fox and Dish have is a result of the new distribution deal the struck last October but it is a pretty raw deal for someone subscribing to HuluPlus. I understand that networks don't want to cannabilize their content by offering it for free on the internet but at the same time they need to recognize that most of us are already paying for cable and internet. We are not getting anything for free. They should be moving toward a platform neutral stance rather than building more barriers to content. Look at HBOGo it's available across platforms. It is a premium service that users pay about $20 a month to have and now they don't have to be glued to the tube to use. Now why can't I as a Hulu subscriber be afforded the same courtesy?
This ends my rant for the day.
What is the point of this? This season Fox has some shows available On-Demand and "Fringe" is one of them, which means that within 24 hours of the live airing the show is available to any with the On-Demand channel. And yet, not available on HuluPlus. This is something that I don't understand. On Hulu Fox shows are already behind the paywall of HuluPlus why compound the restrictions and only for certain shows? "Terra Nova" is behind the wall (though I question that move since it would make since to make it free at least initially to garner more eyeballs on a really expensive production), "Raising Hope" too. I know that there are restrictions on what shows are available across devices, like smartphone versus iPad and gaming consoles.
I don't know if this deal that Fox and Dish have is a result of the new distribution deal the struck last October but it is a pretty raw deal for someone subscribing to HuluPlus. I understand that networks don't want to cannabilize their content by offering it for free on the internet but at the same time they need to recognize that most of us are already paying for cable and internet. We are not getting anything for free. They should be moving toward a platform neutral stance rather than building more barriers to content. Look at HBOGo it's available across platforms. It is a premium service that users pay about $20 a month to have and now they don't have to be glued to the tube to use. Now why can't I as a Hulu subscriber be afforded the same courtesy?
This ends my rant for the day.
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