Boxee-Hulu-Networks-Users : Only Loosers
I was extremely disappointed to hear that Hulu was forced by their content partners to turn off Boxee support. Here’s a situation which turned from a win-win-win-win case to a loose-loose-loose-loose one:
- The networks (NBC, CBS, FOX and others) lost empathy & credibility. If they think this move will drive people back to the TV they are wrong. This is exactly the type of shortsightedness that got those content providers into the downslide they’re facing today. They have to realize that there is a big generation out there that is not going to accept to a walled garden approach, loves services such as internet TV and boxee for them was the access point to those services.
- Hulu is trying to come out good from this situation, but at the end of the day, they have cooperated and agreed to the networks’ mandate.
- Boxee users, a growing passionate community of early adopters with lots of influence, loose because they won’t have access to great shows that are available on Hulu. However, these folks are going to participate in the battle actively and use every social media tool to protest and try to get the situation back to where it was.
- And Boxee, well unfortunately, they are going to loose active users. They are probably not going to loose the users love and support, but since the biggest content provider users had consumed is no longer supported, there will be less reasons for people to login into and use Boxee daily.
But if anyone think this is going to last forever, he is wrong. I predict it is just a matter of time and plenty of discussions between the executives of these three companies (with some help from investors as well) until we will be able to enjoy Hulu on Boxee again.
Because nothing beats the users.
