Microsoft is keen on the idea of integrating practical web services into Xbox Live. Netflix instant streaming is perhaps the most useful of the trinity, as it allows us to watch season after season of TheX-Files and radical documentaries like Helvetica. And despite how stripped down they are, Twitter and Facebook do at least provide a touch point to the social web from our couches--assuming we're too lazy to find our iPhones, that is. But, what's next for Live integration? According to Live Gear's supposedly never-fail source, Hulu will be joining the dashboard after an E3 reveal.
Live Gear believes the Xbox Live version of Hulu will be integrated like Netflix and will carry some sort of subscription fee. What the sub-fee will be, though, the source apparently didn't know. To give you an idea, the tech blogs have latched onto a subscription rumor from the LA Times for Hulu proper that is rather…interesting. Apparently, at one point, the dudes behind the service were kicking around the idea of a $9.95 per-month fee for access to popular shows beyond the five most recent episodes. I guess that works.
1UP backs up this rumor, by the way, reporting that a Hulu application for the 360 does indeed exist, but apparently rights issues are causing a holdup. According to the publication's source, if Hulu is unveiled at E3, it's because things have been ironed out.
I gotta be honest: all this Hulu talk only serves to remind me that big media still needs to chill out about the Internet, and Robocop and The Crow are still not available for streaming on Netflix. This is a travesty Netflix, for real. Get top men on it. Top men.
Microsoft is keen on the idea of integrating practical web services into Xbox Live. Netflix instant streaming is perhaps the most useful of the trinity, as it allows us to watch season after season of TheX-Files and radical documentaries like Helvetica. And despite how stripped down they are, Twitter and Facebook do at least provide a touch point to the social web from our couches--assuming we're too lazy to find our iPhones, that is. But, what's next for Live integration? According to Live Gear's supposedly never-fail source, Hulu will be joining the dashboard after an E3 reveal.
Live Gear believes the Xbox Live version of Hulu will be integrated like Netflix and will carry some sort of subscription fee. What the sub-fee will be, though, the source apparently didn't know. To give you an idea, the tech blogs have latched onto a subscription rumor from the LA Times for Hulu proper that is rather…interesting. Apparently, at one point, the dudes behind the service were kicking around the idea of a $9.95 per-month fee for access to popular shows beyond the five most recent episodes. I guess that works.
1UP backs up this rumor, by the way, reporting that a Hulu application for the 360 does indeed exist, but apparently rights issues are causing a holdup. According to the publication's source, if Hulu is unveiled at E3, it's because things have been ironed out.
I gotta be honest: all this Hulu talk only serves to remind me that big media still needs to chill out about the Internet, and Robocop and The Crow are still not available for streaming on Netflix. This is a travesty Netflix, for real. Get top men on it. Top men.
I'd definitely be stoked for Hulu integration. I don't miss shows often, but I'd like to have the streaming option if it's not available via Comcast On-Demand (which it usually isn't) when I do.
Streaming netflix has been one of the greatest things to happen to my TV, hulu on live could be just as sweet. Although watching seasons 1-5 of the office in HD streaming over the course of a 6 day binge has ruined most of my will to live. Is Top Chef on streaming netflix? hmmmm
There is a program called PlayOn that basically allows you to stream Hulu, Netflix, youtube and just about any video to anything that can see a server over your network. I've used it on my silver account 360 for a long while now, as well as the Wii and PS3.
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Sounds cool, but no way I'd pay a subscription fee for that. DVR, computerized Hulu, show's websites, netflix, and DVR free instant-watch already provide the level of TV-watching possibility I need - and all those come with things I was paying for already.
So even though we have to pay $50 for Xbox LIVE and have to deal with tons of ads on the dashboard Microsoft would still charge a subscription fee for this? Come on now.
" So even though we have to pay $50 for Xbox LIVE and have to deal with tons of ads on the dashboard Microsoft would still charge a subscription fee for this? Come on now. "
Read the article again. According to the linked L.A. Times article the owners of Hulu have been kicking around a $9.95 a month fee to access older episodes of shows. It isn't Xbox specific or Microsoft related.
Yay, something completely useless to anyone outside the US.
You US guys should make a non-US Live account (silver is fine) and just check out how little there is available on Xbox Live in other regions. It's completely laughable, and yet we still pay the same amount for Live as you do.
This is the same story as last year, but I see a bigger chance of it happening.
Hulu is currently trying to negotiate with content producers to license all of those shows to be viewed from stuff besides a computer.
Right now those right holders don't want that to happen, because Hulu revenue is a lot lower compared to cable at the moment.
With this new subscription (rumored at $10 a month) Hulu Prime/Plus users will be able to see content from their iphones, ipads, and game consoles.
The $10 price-tag seems a big high, but when you consider that you can cancel your cable (unless you are interested in those live-events like Sports, or even E3) it seems a lot cheaper.
" So even though we have to pay $50 for Xbox LIVE and have to deal with tons of ads on the dashboard Microsoft would still charge a subscription fee for this? Come on now. "
I really don't understand why people get so up in arms about something that costs $50 a year. It really isn't that much when you think about it.
" So even though we have to pay $50 for Xbox LIVE and have to deal with tons of ads on the dashboard Microsoft would still charge a subscription fee for this? Come on now. "
I really don't understand why people get so up in arms about something that costs $50 a year. It really isn't that much when you think about it. "
It's not about the 50 bucks, it is about how we already pay for a service and them adding features and charging for them feels really cheap considering that Sony's PSN is free for a feature set that is kinda equal
All this crap with Hulu being a paid service just really bums me out. I wouldn't be so against it if the service had had a paid subscription all along. But starting off free and then making it a paid subscription without (presumably) adding anything new just feels like a giant tease.
$9.95 a month is a terrible idea. Who would go with this over Netflix? I'd pay $10 a year for this but no more. I have a DVR and a computer, where hulu is free!
" So even though we have to pay $50 for Xbox LIVE and have to deal with tons of ads on the dashboard Microsoft would still charge a subscription fee for this? Come on now. "
I really don't understand why people get so up in arms about something that costs $50 a year. It really isn't that much when you think about it. "
It's not about the 50 bucks, it is about how we already pay for a service and them adding features and charging for them feels really cheap considering that Sony's PSN is free for a feature set that is kinda equal "
I wouldn't call PSN equal to XBL just yet. It doesn't have cross-game chat and it's a pain to get a game going with your friends if said game doesn't have a good "invite" feature. Also, I think people forget to keep in mind that this is hulu we're talking about, and they are the ones who want some money from putting the man hours into programming this into the 360's OS. Again, I'm not saying that I welcome a new subscription fee, but to get angry at Microsoft for not paying a boatload of cash so that we can have this feature for free doesn't get us anywhere.
If they don't add functionality I don't see what they could charge for and get me to go over. My laptop has HDMI out so I don't really need this on the 360 and one year of something like PlayOn costs what two months of a $10 Hulu subscription costs.
It's still a better deal than cable tv, but not enough to get me subscribing. If Hulu added TNT, Showtime and HBO and did 720p streams, I'd be willing to pay $10 for it during the seasons that Breaking Bad, Entourage, Californication, Southland and Men of a Certain Age were showing.
This might matter to me if Hulu wasn't a buncha dicks and didn't allow canadians to stream without having to resort to proxy servers and shit like that. So, screw Hulu.
Great, another service only available to American Xbox owners. How are they selling outside of America again? Oh, right...
If they're going to push these "value-added" services as selling points of the Xbox instead of, you know, games they need to work with these services to get them available outside just the US.
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