# Hulu on Tivo!?!



## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

Does this mean that Tivo is working on Hulu for Tivo or that they are considering it? 

http://www.facebook.com/TiVo?v=app_321507015175


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## socrplyr (Jul 19, 2006)

At this point I doubt Hulu on Tivo will happen. Well at least anytime soon. It has nothing to do with Tivo not wanting it. It has nothing to do with some technical difficulty. It has everything to do with what is most assuredly in the broadcast TV station's contracts. The entertainment industry has divided up licensing for content based on where or how that content is shown. There are licenses for TVs and there are licenses for PCs. Typically these contracts are exclusive. Thus Hulu can't be shown on a TV and will not be available to any TV devices (Tivo, Roku, WMC), until Hell freezes over. Get over it, it isn't going to happen (despite many political and religious morons saying the world is going to end).


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

While I agree with you, the question is why ask then?


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## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

That's my point. It's like pouring salt in a wound.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

Just throwing it out there... If/when Hulu starts their subscription model, maybe then content providers will be more likely to warm up to licensed devices.


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## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

Yep, and then I'm not likely to want Hulu. I'm not going to see the point of ads and paying a subscription.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

So what do they say about products like Slingcatcher and Slingbox that totally subvert that.


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## Kablemodem (May 26, 2001)

magnus said:


> Yep, and then I'm not likely to want Hulu. I'm not going to see the point of ads and paying a subscription.


Where did people get the idea that a paid subscription means no ads?


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## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

Where did you get the idea that people would want to do both? I'm just saying that I'm not going to find much value in it, that's all.



Kablemodem said:


> Where did people get the idea that a paid subscription means no ads?


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

innocentfreak said:


> While I agree with you, the question is why ask then?


TiVo CEO has said in interviews he would happily work to get HulU content on the TiVo. He then gets cagey about if the ytalk with Hulu and what Hulu says, likely so TiVo does not piss off Hulu with some public comment.

So they ask the question, I think, to gauge public desire for Hulu on TiVo to find out how hard to work on Hulu.


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## SpiritualPoet (Jan 14, 2007)

In a perfect world, Apple would come up with a TiVoPod (paying royalties to TiVo, of course!) for the ultimate DVR - wireless, handholdable, AND capable of working with every downloadable movie source (Hulu, Blockbuster, Netflix, etc.) Such a product would run off a.c. and be rechargeable (and dockable!).


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## parzec (Jun 21, 2002)

The TV / PC distinction isn't really as simple as it sounds given that HDMI can be used to connect both monitors and HDTV's and that Microsoft powered PC's can play and record TV with Tuner cards. It is called convergence and pretty soon the difference between the two will be completely meaningless.


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## TolloNodre (Nov 3, 2007)

Kablemodem said:


> Where did people get the idea that a paid subscription means no ads?


You're probably too young to remember, but for much of the 70s and early 80s that was the entire point of paying for cable television. You got channels without commercials.

As an early cable adopter, our neighbors thought we were _nuts_ to *PAY* for television when you could get it over the air for free...


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## SpiritualPoet (Jan 14, 2007)

Yeah, remember when AMC (American Movie Classics) was commercial free? Now, only TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is the only non-premium commercial free cable channel. I hope it stays that way.


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## SullyND (Dec 30, 2004)

SpiritualPoet said:


> Now, only TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is the only non-premium commercial free cable channel. I hope it stays that way.


NickJr is commercial free.


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## Gavroche (May 27, 2007)

SullyND said:


> NickJr is commercial free.


One could argue that Disney is as well, though they have breaks in their programming, but not advertising.

(Disney XD has commercials, Disney Channel does not.)

But yeah, the few examples mentioned here are the only ones I can think of. I can rememebr back to the start of MTV, and even MTV had no commercials!

Ahhhh yes the good ol days...


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## Kablemodem (May 26, 2001)

TolloNodre said:


> You're probably too young to remember, but for much of the 70s and early 80s that was the entire point of paying for cable television. You got channels without commercials.
> 
> As an early cable adopter, our neighbors thought we were _nuts_ to *PAY* for television when you could get it over the air for free...


I've had cable since the the 70s and we always had commercials, except for the premium channels. I also get advertisements on several of my satellite radio channels, in newspapers, magazines, etc.


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## SullyND (Dec 30, 2004)

Kablemodem said:


> I also get advertisements on several of my satellite radio channels, in newspapers, magazines, etc.


Not to mention TiVo.


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

Kablemodem said:


> I've had cable since the the 70s and we always had commercials, except for the premium channels. I also get advertisements on several of my satellite radio channels, in newspapers, magazines, etc.


That was certainly my experience in the 70s. Cable was attractive for more channels, not lack of commercials.

On Hulu, since their existence depends on affiliates not rebelling over TV delivery through Internet channels, I expect that any blessed delivery to a set-top would require some kind of kickback to the affiliates, which would likely mean a fee.

The exception might be if they could demonstrate that preventing commercial skipping in the Hulu content (really people why do you want this?) raises the value of the advertising enough to fund the kickback.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Gavroche said:


> I can rememebr back to the start of MTV, and even MTV had no commercials!
> 
> Ahhhh yes the good ol days...


I recall when MTV was a premium channel I watched versus a reality show horror channel I block


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## lb3 (Feb 9, 2009)

parzec said:


> The TV / PC distinction isn't really as simple as it sounds given that HDMI can be used to connect both monitors and HDTV's and that Microsoft powered PC's can play and record TV with Tuner cards. It is called convergence and pretty soon the difference between the two will be completely meaningless.


Agreed. I recently hooked up a home theater PC to my HDTV. It gets Hulu on my TV, among other things.


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## Sapphire (Sep 10, 2002)

SullyND said:


> NickJr is commercial free.


So is boomerang.


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

socrplyr said:


> At this point I doubt Hulu on Tivo will happen. Well at least anytime soon. It has nothing to do with Tivo not wanting it. It has nothing to do with some technical difficulty. It has everything to do with what is most assuredly in the broadcast TV station's contracts. The entertainment industry has divided up licensing for content based on where or how that content is shown. There are licenses for TVs and there are licenses for PCs. Typically these contracts are exclusive. Thus Hulu can't be shown on a TV and will not be available to any TV devices (Tivo, Roku, WMC), until Hell freezes over. Get over it, it isn't going to happen (despite many political and religious morons saying the world is going to end).


There's nothing stopping TiVo from offering Hulu content. After all it's freely available on the web. However Hulu doesn't have to make it easy for TiVo either, and if TiVo moves forward without Hulu's blessing they will find themselves in the same boat as Boxee.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10203331-36.html


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Stormspace said:


> There's nothing stopping TiVo from offering Hulu content.


Except a lawsuit waiting to happen. Plus, TiVo relies on many of the content providers that Hulu works with. There's no way they would piss them off. Boxee has gotten by up until now because they haven't posed any kind of the threat (so Hulu just keeps adding ways to block them).


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

rainwater said:


> Except a lawsuit waiting to happen. Plus, TiVo relies on many of the content providers that Hulu works with. There's no way they would piss them off. Boxee has gotten by up until now because they haven't posed any kind of the threat (so Hulu just keeps adding ways to block them).


A lawsuit would be groundless. The video is posted on the public internet for all to use. Your point about relationships and such is what would make TiVo think twice, not any legal requirements.

PS: I also don't think TiVo is up to the task of playing ball like Boxee. TiVo wouldn't want to jockey back and forth with workarounds, they'd rather make it work once and forget about it.


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## Kablemodem (May 26, 2001)

I don't think TiVo has the the rights to include Hulu as part of the TiVo service, so the lawsuit would not be groundless.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

I would think for Tivo to provide direct access to Hulu would require some sort of license agreement.
If consumers have a "work around" that skirts Hulu's "policy" to not stream to TV's, that's out of their control.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Stormspace said:


> A lawsuit would be groundless. The video is posted on the public internet for all to use. Your point about relationships and such is what would make TiVo think twice, not any legal requirements.


I don't think that's true, unless you got the EXACT same UI on the theoretical TivoHulu as the regular Hulu web site..

Didn't some companies win law suits over carrying other sites' content in frames on their web pages? E.g Company A has a web page, whose exterior contains Company A's ads, but has a frame which contains *just* the story (but not the ads) of Company B. I thought there was precedent for Company B winning against Company A.

I go to hulu.com, and there are specific videos listed, including right now American Dad shown at the top. Was that paid for? I don't know, but if e.g. TivoHulu didn't show American Dad there, it seems to me like they could be arguably removing 'ads' from Hulu's content.

(In other words, it's not JUST the ads that play during the video.)


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

Stormspace said:


> A lawsuit would be groundless. The video is posted on the public internet for all to use. Your point about relationships and such is what would make TiVo think twice, not any legal requirements.


They have a terms of service section that states that the video is for use only through their site or authorized partners. Deliberately encouraging users to violate those terms would probably be pretty good grounds.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

But if tivo added a web browser so you were actually going to www.hulu.com would they have any recourse?

Or if they implemented a browser where you couldn't key in websites but could only pick from favorites that Tivo added?

Not that this would really make sense but I could see this as a potential way around it almost as if Tivo added webtv functionality just limiting which sites it could access.


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## infinitespecter (Jul 23, 2004)

innocentfreak said:


> But if tivo added a web browser so you were actually going to www.hulu.com would they have any recourse?


The PS3 has a browser. Hulu blocked it. They would likely do the same thing to TiVo.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Gavroche said:


> I can rememebr back to the start of MTV, and even MTV had no commercials!


Apparently you don't remember quite as well as you think. 

This is Saturday, August 1, 1981, MTV launch day, from 12:10 A.M. to 12:20 A.M.. In other words, 10 minutes after the network launched:






MTV had commercials from day one (literally).


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

infinitespecter said:


> The PS3 has a browser. Hulu blocked it. They would likely do the same thing to TiVo.


I wasn't aware of that. I didn't think they would be able block a browser from accessing their content. Then again is the PS3 running a Sony specific browser?

I was more thinking just adding something like Chrome, but then I am guessing they would still somehow be able to tell what device you are connecting from.

Maybe one of these days I should actually visit Hulu to see what the fuss is about.


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## parzec (Jun 21, 2002)

innocentfreak said:


> I wasn't aware of that. I didn't think they would be able block a browser from accessing their content. Then again is the PS3 running a Sony specific browser?
> 
> I was more thinking just adding something like Chrome, but then I am guessing they would still somehow be able to tell what device you are connecting from.
> 
> Maybe one of these days I should actually visit Hulu to see what the fuss is about.


There is actually an easy workaround -- set up a proxy server (Squid) and have it alter the Browser Tag information to mimic IE. Presto!


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## bobdole369 (Dec 21, 2004)

As an IT pro, I can easily circumvent this as the prior poster mentions. BUT, how am I going to get my mother-in-law to do the same? And what of the day when thats blocked somehow.


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