Hulu has recently announced their plans to do away with their free streaming option to new viewers and non-members of their paid service packages. The streaming service for a while now has been pressuring non-members as of late to subscribe to their streaming service by paying a monthly fee to use their whole showcase of films, show episodes, and other videos. Ten years ago, Hulu promised to give the world a new source of free TV. Now that business motto is null and void after they made a deal with Yahoo to sell them their “free episodes” for their own online video venture, Yahoo View.
In a few weeks, Hulu plans to disintegrate their option for non-members to view the last five episodes from select NBC, Fox, and ABC shows. Hulu’s Senior Vice President and Head of Experience, Ben Smith, has released a comment to the press stating that this new change is to create the best streaming option and experience for their viewers. Other commentators on the web believe Hulu is tired of “free loaders” using their site and wants only to paying members to use their service.
Hulu is trying to branch it’s company into an alternative cable option by creating a new viral TV streaming service next year. With the new cable streaming service, Hulu plans for paying viewers to be able to stream live channels and also offer an on demand option. Time Warner has joined Hulu’s venture to make their streaming TV service dreams come true by taking a 10% stake in the company. The other companies who own the biggest percentage of Hulu are Comcast Corp., 21st Century Fox, and Walt Disney. Time Warner paid $583 million dollars for their stake in the company, making Hulu’s new company value over $5.8 billion dollars.
Unlike Hulu, Yahoo has had failures with their new video streaming ventures. Screen, their latest video streaming site had to be shut down after seven months due to low viewership. Yahoo also announced that they are no longer trying to create their own content. They haven’t financially benefited from creating original shows or video content for their last failed video site.
