It's Rarely Sunny On Hulu Anymore
Those online TV show streaming sites — they grow up so fast! Hulu, which Fox and NBC launched barely more than two years ago, has vaulted into the top echelon of streaming sites and red-rovered Disney and its property, ABC, on over.
But all is not well in Hululand, Wired reports, because the venerable "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," one of the site's most popular shows, is no longer available on the site in full. Now the site will only carry the show's five most recent episodes. Networks, cable companies and DVD distributors aren't too fond of being made obsolete, so they've forced Hulu to engage in some technological c*ck-blocking.
It's not hard to see what's at work here. If cable and satellite operators are threatened by your ability to watch free shows on your computer, imagine how they feel about letting you watch free shows on your TV. What if people decide they can do without those expensive bundles of programming? Of course, companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable don't even begin to replicate Hulu's breadth - its readiness to stream every episode of every series it can get its hands on - or its ease of use. The BitTorrent sites aren't exactly a breeze, but at least they let you get what you want.
[Hulu CEO Jason] Kilar, a longtime Amazon exec, knows what the Internet is teaching audiences to expect: The ability to watch any show, day or night. And he's adept at explaining this new reality in a way that emphasizes its potential. "This is a tectonic shift," he told me when I profiled Hulu last year for Wired, "and what it does is allow network heads to find the audience they always should have had but couldn't reach." But not everybody sees it that way.
Day Man, fighter of the Night Man, would not approve.
Hulu, a Victim of Its Own Success? [Wired, via Movie City News]
Post a comment
Comments:
The "Sunny" incident occurred in January without notice. It went from all episodes from all seasons, with current season updates to the rolling five. There was a huge outcry because of the lack of warning. Hulu worked with FX to provide access to all of the episodes for an additional month.
Five rolling episodes is great, they have to attempt to spur DVD sales somewhere.
And yes, "Sunny" is the best comedy on TV.
You know, I make it a point to patronize Hulu and its ilk when they put shows up. Stick on a couple ads, I'm fine with that. I understand how the revenue stream works and that I get free TV in exchange for watching your ads. I'm happy to do that on my computer, especially when you make it relatively painless (just one ad at the "break," or the program pauses after the ad until you restart it, in case I've gone to another window to do something else during the ad).
Why don't they just stick some extra ads on the older episodes of the show? You "pay" more to watch older eps, and they can keep the older eps around.
I'm not exactly against them taking down older episodes -- I generally assume the legit sites will only have the last few episodes available -- but people WILL go to the torrents for episodes they can't get from the legit sites and then there's no money in it.
They need to make the indexing better on a lot of these sites, though, and enable me to go directly to the show I want from google instead of jumping through hoops to visit the site and open this player and flip through 37 shows and so on. Some of the players (notably CBS's, but sometimes ABC's) need to ensure they're properly syncing up the commercial breaks -- my "How I Met Your Mother" keeps going on to start playing while the commercial is still going, and CBS's player is REALLY BAD at letting you jump back in time, for reasons totally beyond me.
Make it as easy as YouTube, dorks! Stop adding artificial hoops!
Yes television companies! Your days are coming to an end! BWahahahaha with luck the internet will destroy you and your monopolies, allowing for a new wave of entertainment! Although with our luck it'll probably be funny pictures of cats, but it is a small price to pay for your doom!
Day man
Fighter of the Night man
Champion of the sun
You're a master of karate and friendship…for everyone
Day man, day man
Uhh ahhahh
Fighter of the Night man
Uhh ahhahh
Champion of the sun
Uhh ahhahh
Master of karate and friendship…for everyone
Day man, day man
Uhh ahhahh
Fighter of the Night man
Champion of the sun
The funny thing is, Hulu was started by networks trying to avoid their content being pirated and shown on Youtube. But several cable channels in particular, like USA and TNT have been reluctant participants at best so you won't find much of their content on Hulu.
I personally use Hulu for pretty much all my TV watching these days. Cable free rocks!
It's only a matter of time until these networks, cable companies and DVD distributors start demanding Hulu's removal...
These companies make me sick and I hope they're losing lots of money. When will they learn that the people want choice!!! Not 250 channels of bullshit for $XX.XX a month. Subscriptions will continue to decline and cancellations will continue to rise, I personally hope they never learn…
Wow, it's like the executives want to push people into piracy. First they pull Boxee support, now they're pulling shows.
Isn't there some study showing that most people who don't pay for their media would never buy it anyway?
This is nothing new.
I've been watching 30 Rock exclusively on Hulu for quite awhile now, and there have never been more than the last "five trailing episodes of the current season".
Of course, more episodes may have been available at some point before I started using Hulu to watch 30 Rock, but that would have been at least a year ago.
Which is exactly why I haven't had cable in over 4 years. Yes, it's technically illegal to use BT to download my shows, but it's not like I'm gonna get busted for it. As soon as cable companies get out of the stoneage and start offering me what I want, at a price that's reasonable, I'll be back up on the horse. Waiting for new shows to pop up (for example, the Breaking Bad episode from two weeks ago didn't show up on public torrent searches until Friday!) is annoying, but it works for me for now.
I pay 40 bucks a month for a DSL connection and get everything I could want. Basically, I should never be restricted from watching what I want, when I want. Plus, I get to watch shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men and BSG without paying for the thousands of hours of crap programming I want nothing to do with. What we need is a company to come forth with a set-top box that streams stuff in by the show, not the channel. Let me purchase a set number of hours a month, and I only use it to watch what I want. Up the price for watching with no commercials or go a cheaper route. Now, I don't have to pay for Project Runway, but I can still watch Top Chef. I don't have to pay for "The L Word" bu I can still see "Californication". As long as it wasn't too expensive, I'd be all over it.
who pooped the bed?
Maybe it's just me and my pick-y-ness over TV, but I can't stand Hulu. Their SD is SD TV which is enough said and the most of the shows they have in HD are junk with poor bitrates.
In order of quality I would take OTA broadcast or MKV files (depending on the OTA provider and their quality), cable/satellite, and lastly Hulu for my TV needs.
@gafpromise: I found that out the hard way. I started getting into a bunch of the shows on USA and it has quickly become my favorite channel over TruTV. I was really disappointed to find out that some of the shows I wanted to catch up on was no where to be found.
I experienced this when I first got into Sunny and wanted to catch up on the first 3 seasons from before I started watching it. I checked Hulu and watched some clips, but couldn't watch full episodes because this was a week or two after they removed all the old ones and switched to the current "Latest 5" scheme. So, rather than getting ad views from me while I watched them on Hulu, they got nothing since I had to torrent them to see them all.
The same with The Mentalist. I watched a couple episodes on my uncle's DVR and decided I liked it. I headed over to CBS.com, but rather than having any episodes at all for streaming, they only have clips available. Again, totally willing to watch them with ads to give the network revenue, but again, made it impossible for me to watch conveniently.
Fox and ABC are a little better, but even then, neither has even whole seasons available, let alone a whole series. Fox goes back about 5 or so episodes, but don't even add new ones until 8 days after original air, which means if you want to actually follow the story the way it's supposed to be, you then can't watch next week's episode when it originally airs since you still haven't seen the episode from the week before, leaving you a week behind until you finally give in and watch it somewhere else.
In this day and age, people want to be able to watch a show on their time, and with Tivo and DVRs, they don't even have to put up with your ads to do so. So why would you possibly keep people from watching your programming online with revenue-generating ads? There's plenty of people that would put up with the ads to be able to watch these shows when they want (Not to mention that waiting until they're all rebroadcast is a terrible option, since reruns are often aired out of order and it takes forever to get through a whole run of something in reruns). They need to be doing everything they can to keep these people watching their streams of them so they can get money from it, rather than driving them off to Megavideo, Chinese Youtube-like sites, and torrent sites.
@axiomatic: I think they see it another way. Rather than conforming to what the viewers would like. Lets just knock down what they do like, so they are forced to like what we want them to.
@gafpromise: TNT in particular... many of USA's good shows are on Hulu, at least the same "revolving 5." Burn Notice was certainly on there for some time.
We haven't dropped Cable because we would miss History and Discovery, neither of which have gotten on this fancy streamin thang.
They did the same thing with Family Guy.
@astraelraen: I think it's just because you're spoiled with HD to start. The side-by-side of OTA/Cable HD vs. OTA/Cable SD is pretty stark.
However, going from SD-to-web is not too bad. Trying to watch sports in SD after HD is pretty bad though.
Imagine a Best Buy without media. All of that floor space for CD's, DVD's, and computer games replaced with direct digital distribution.
Everyone dies. Best Buy dies because attaching that crap is their business model. Media companies die because the only thing supporting their massive production costs are the sales of DVD's and attached merchandise. Imagine all that shelf space in a local big-box completely wiped out. Cripes!
I had a similar problem with How I Met Your Mother. I watched the first three seasons from Netflix. But now it's in the fourth season and who knows when the dvd's will be out. I was hoping to be able to watch the episodes on CBS's website, but they only have the two most recent episodes to stream. Thankfully I was able to find everything on Bit Torrent and download everything in less than three hours.
When viewed in comparison to free streaming TV, cable companies are essentially streaming television that requires a subscription and does not allow the customer to watch whatever show he wants whenever he wants. If they viewed it that way, they would realize that their business model is doomed to fail. Unfortunately the cable companies control the pipes, and at some point we all know they are going to make the streaming TV bend to their will somehow, either through bandwidth throttling, or caps.
If they pull it off Hulu (or shut Hulu down or whatever), I'll just go back to the Torrents - simple as that.
So this is a bit of an old story. I am a pretty heavy user of Hulu. I have a mac mini that hooks to my TV that I use for streaming and DVR functions. I do not have cable.
I also love IASIP. This saga begins a few months ago. I had added all of their shows to my viewing queue when all of the episodes from season 1-3 were available on Hulu. I was about 6 or so episodes from finishing season 3 when they all just disappeared overnight back in about February. The message board blew up with complaints. A week or so later Hulu put all the episodes back up with a note apologizing for their abrupt removal but that there would be a limit of 5 episodes up at any given time come March. I finished watching season 3 and haven't thought much about it since.
Personally I don't know why content creators are freaking out about this. They make money every single time I watch any episode Hulu. If I buy the DVD (likely used on ebay) they only get money once (or never). TV executives need to read The Long Tail before they get their panties in a bunch about this.
Hulu has to do this whit a lot of show on their or sorry the latest episode won't be available for 8 or 10 days after initial broadcast. It sucks but I guess we have to live with it for now but pretty soon Hulu will take over and we'll be able to watch whatever we want!
@atrixe: Yup -- as of late, every show worth watching has only the 5 most recent episodes available. Some, like House, don't even post the newest episode for more than a week after air date.
This is nothing new, and certainly isn't exclusive to Sunny.
@aphex242: Basic cable (non-broadcast network stations like FX) technically has no FCC restrictions or regulations.
@Eyebrows McGee (popping ~May 29): I adore Hulu and have been using it for over a year now. It's not Hulu's fault about the amount of episodes available or that it's inconsistent even within networks (Philadelphia is on Hulu, The Shield isn't. Both FX shows). Once you learn what is on Hulu and when and for how long, it works well.
I like that it has most of the shows I watch all in one place, so I'm not going to NBC, TBS, Fox, etc.
ABC's shows on Hulu and Fancast redirect you to ABC's own player, which is god awful. The volume on the commercials is twice as loud as the shows and when the commercial is over, the show won't continue unless you click the "continue" button.
Hulu is definitely the best out there, especially when I can watch one long commercial at the beginning of a show and not have it interrupted.
@sicknick:
"but it's not like I'm gonna get busted for it."
Using most torrent trackers (public or private) it is only a matter of time before your ISP gets a notice of copywright infringement, and you get a notice from your isp saying it happened while the ip was leased to your machine.
Usenet. Your IPs are not so easy to find.
@evilrobot: Why?
DVD is so slow! I have to drive to the store, find my way to the right section, Hopefully the DVD is in stock, then I have to stand in lines, checkout, drive home, open the packaging...
Factor in gas costs and DVD looks so ridiculous in comparrison... Plus, DVD is not HD!
I don't know why these companies are opposed to reaching markets of people in more rural areas who may not have access to a nearby DVD vendor. They would bring in so much more ad revenue!
@evilrobot: Hey I love Sunny, but I have to say that, on average, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad are probably funnier.
The Office and 30 Rock are no slouches either.
@superberg: Hah yeah, you would hope anyone could get that message just by browsing through the comments on any story like this.
If I can't get what I want, when I want it, with acceptable convenience and performance, I'll steal it. Sorry guys, that's how it is.
@supercereal: Right but the difference is that the entire catalog of Sunny was available for a long time, and then was pulled without notice.
I still sort of agree -- 5 free episodes is better than zero. Still though, the Sunny situation is a bit unique.
@nakedscience: It's not about being a snob, it's about enjoying your viewing experience.
Personally, the buffering issues are much more bothersome than the video quality on Hulu. I have a perfectly good internet connection, capable of streaming MLB.tv in HD without an issue. And still, somehow I always run into buffering pauses on Hulu.
Until they fix that, I can't justify Hulu over BitTorrent.
@ADismalScience: Eh, I don't think "everyone" would die. There are still ways to make money with digital distribution: advertising, premium services, etc.
So yeah, companies clinging to an old model would die, but others would prosper in their place by filling a new niche. Hey, sorta sounds like newspapers.
It's been that way since the last season ended. Now they can stream 5 rolling episodes at a time.
It happened with other shows too, like American Dad. They used to have every episode, then about 2 weeks ago in became 5 from every season.
Dear TV Studios/Cable Providers:
I would be willing pay something like $20/month to have access to the television shows that I want to watch, day or night. A la carte sports packages starting at $5-10/month. Other special shows on an a la carte basis as well.
The End
@Slack: But then you're paying to pirate, which is even more reprehensible, at least in my opinion...
I used Hulu to watch a bunch of TV shows/seasons. The ads are fine. Hell, I would pay some towards a subscription. What I cannot get there, I will get from Netflix- although their streaming gives me a much lower quality and so I just get DVDs. I turned off cable the beginning of the year and have no intention of ever hooking it up again.
And let me ad, my local digital TV reception now includes Universal Sports! I get cool Olympic sports without cable! I hope the local stations figure out that they can use their additional digital space to put out additional programming and make more money!
Lots of other shows on Hulu are like this, where they only have the last 5 episodes available. What's the big deal? Want the older episodes? Watch the reruns on TV or buy the Season DVD when it comes. Man, some people nowadays feel entitled to everything.
@trujunglist: Absolutely.
The sports thing would be a huge revolution. To every single person who says "nobody needs cable anymore", I bring up sports. Stuff like MLB.tv (which has vastly improved this year) is encouraging, but there are a lot of good sports -- NBA/NHL, MLB Postseason, Monday Night Football -- that you can only get with cable.
Hopefully either content providers will wise up and start giving us options like you said, or we can just do everything -- sports included -- online.
@ClutchDude: I am now convinced that I should avoid HD at all costs, lest I be unable to enjoy any other format ever again.
@Rhayader: And you need super High Def to enjoy the freakin' Simpsons or a sitcom? Really?
I never run into buffering problems on Hulu. Perhaps your ISP is to blame and not Hulu?
Dear content providers,
You either engage your viewers the way they want to be engaged or you fail.
Sincerely,
The masses.