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I’m sure you’ve used Hulu, or at least are familiar with the site.  Launched about two years ago by NBC and Fox, Hulu has become wildly popular with many as a favorite online TV service.  This success, however, may turn out to be their Achilles’ heel.

Hulu has seen their name in the news plenty of the past five months or so especially.  Back in January, the decision was made to pull most of the episodes of the very popular show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” from their lineup.  This obviously did not go over well with viewers.  People complained (loudly!) on Hulu’s “Sunny in Philly” forum.  We heard “Hulu blows” and the obvious “Off to the torrent sites.”

As of two weeks ago, Hulu still seems to be going strong according to comScore’s report showing that Hulu zipped into the top three spot streaming video sites.  Then we heard the news that Disney (corporate parent for ESPN and ABC) was hopping aboard the Hulu train.  Seemed as though it’s Always Sunny in Hulu-delphia at least, right?  Maybe not so much.

The thing is, the pull of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” came due to the network’s request.  It wasn’t as though Hulu didn’t want to run it anymore.  Then right after that comes the Boxee shut off.  Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said “Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product, and we are respecting their wishes.” in a blog post regarding the move. 

It’s pretty clear that certain powers-that-be aren’t quite as thrilled with Hulu’s success as say…Hulu is.  Companies like Comcast and Time Warner have to pay cable networks to carry their shows, and the fact that people can watch them on the ‘net for free isn’t exactly an idea that makes them jump up and down.  Add to that the potential loss of DVD sales related to cable TV, and it makes certain folks even less happy.

The reality is that audiences want to be able to watch whatever they want at any time.  This is the age of instant gratification, and the Internet has taught us much in being able to get that.  And this is scaring the pants of Hollywood studios and TV networks.  They are faced with charts of ad sales showing an arrow going down-down-down….DVD sales plummeting, and thus the fear ensues.  A distribution chief at Turner (a network that refuses to make popular shows available, and only keeps a couple episodes on its own site) says that, “We have to find ways to advance the business rather than cannibalize it.”

Well, you might want it to stay the same Turner boys…but I don’t think that is the reality.  People will watch the shows online.  You can choose whether it is going to be Hulu…where people have to at least watch all of those little ads….or those less than legal sites. 

via: wired