What would be better than watching TV shows and movies on Hulu sat at your computer? Watching it fro your couch of course. Boxee once offered such an option until Hulu decided to take its ball and go home. The reasons for that decision now become clear.
Hu(ge)lu Success
has so far been a hugely successful foray into the online video market for NBC and News Corps. So successful in fact that Disney also wanted in, buying its way onto the service at the end of April. Hulu has attracted millions of viewers, advertisers aplenty, and is by all accounts building a more profitable service than Google is managing with YouTube.
Hulu has managed all this by offering premium content for free, supported by advertising, which can be played from within a browser. But from today there is now another option, with the Hulu Desktop application being released for Windows PCs and Apple Macs. Linux users are once again left out of the loop. No surprise there.
Hulu Desktop App
The Hulu Desktop app take Hulu out of the browser and into a stand-alone player. It’s very much like the BBC iPlayer Desktop in the way it works except that while the British-only service works using Adobe AIR, the U.S.-only service is a native app requiring no external software in order to run.
After all the (some would say) useless features Hulu has added since launch, this one is a definite game changer. The Hulu Desktop app is designed to make Hulu “a lean-back experience”, meaning less of the usual sitting cramped at a computer watching shows and more relaxing on the couch doing the same. Both the Windows Media Center remote and the Apple Remote are compatible with the new release.
Computers Only!
However, Hulu doesn’t want you using the service as a possible replacement to cable, and has added a line to its terms of use insisting, “You may not download, install or use the Hulu Software on any device other than a Personal Computer.” This includes digital media receivers, mobile devices, and supposedly televisions as well. But the temptation to hook your laptop up to your TV to watch Hulu is surely too much to resist.
Boxee Banished Before
Of course, there is an existing application that already allowed you to do this: Boxee. However, in its wisdom Hulu decided to remove all its content from Boxee in February citing pressure from its content partners. There followed a game of cat and mouse, with a workaround by Boxee followed by a closing of the loophole by Hulu.
With the release of the Hulu Desktop application it makes the reasons for that decision a lot clearer – Hulu obviously wants to make the move to the couch but on its own terms. Why let Boxee effectively syndicate content when you can develop your own piece of software to do the same thing? The difference being that Hulu can maintain control over its own Desktop app and even add adverts further down the line.
The guys at Boxee aren’t happy with the development and I don’t blame them.
