CBS is the only one of the four major U.S. television networks which doesn’t offer any content through Hulu. And doesn’t look like changing anytime soon.
The reason? Because a free Hulu is evil and is killing network television. Apparently.
Traditional TV Vs. Web TV
And there I was thinking that the TV industry was finally getting it. Thinking that it was managing to embrace the idea that there are alternative ways of consuming content than the traditional ones using the old-fashioned business models. But it would seem not.
There has been much talk recently from the people in charge of the companies which own Hulu, especially News Corps. chairman Rupert Murdoch, over the possibility of turning Hulu into a cash cow by either going all-out for a subscription-based model or at least running a paid option parallel to the free one.
And now CBS has got involved in the argument.
Execs Rip Into Hulu
This all started with a Contentinople story detailing the opinions on Hulu of various media executives who spoke at an Advertising Week panel at The Times Center.
Major League Baseball Advanced Media CEO Bob Bowman explained he doesn’t “understand the business model.” While Verizon Communications Inc. vice president of content strategy and acquisition Terry Denson and YES Network CEO Tracy Dolgin both threw the weight of their support behind a hybrid advertising/paid model for the service.
CBS’ Quincy Smith Pounces
CBS Interactive CEO Quincy Smith then passed the article around internally via email. Unfortunately for him, TechCrunch got hold of a leaked copy.
Smith packaged the copied article with his thoughts that, “We should think about how hard it would be to prove that some ratings declines are a result of reckless hulu [sic] streams and that Authentication [sic] is a nice option.
This is, of course, an important time of year for television networks thanks to the Fall premieres of new shows. Smith wants to somehow prove that poor ratings for shows on any network other than CBS are solely due to the show also being available to watch on Hulu.
Conclusions
Maybe Smith isn’t doing anything that bad in trying to find evidence that his, and his company’s, decision to avoid Hulu like the plague is the correct one.
But his stance on the issue shows a disregard for the idea of offering content for free without authentication, short hand for viewers proving they already subscribe to a cable service. Which is why CBS is fine with the new TV Everywhere offering which does exactly that.
There’s clearly a battle on its way and as viewers we have to hope the TV industry takes the longer term view and avoids the pitfalls the music industry has made and continues to make to this day.
