For the past six months, I’ve been getting addicted to my Roku-enhanced television. It’s been years now since I cancelled my cable service and I rarely miss it, especially with the abundance of old TV shows streaming to my Roku from Netflix. Still, we live in a “grass is always greener” culture, and I’ve begun jealously looking at Hulu Plus, wondering if it would be worth the eight bucks a month to give myself the more current streaming content that they seem to offer.
I was disappointed to learn that Fox is working with Comcast and Hulu (partly owned by Comcast) to exclude non-cable subscribers from streaming access. Monday the New York Post reported on talks that would move Fox’s content on Hulu Plus to a so-called “TV Everywhere” model. The reported plan would essentially mimic HBO’s approach to their HBO Go service, which limits streaming access to regular HBO subscribers.
This is an understandable but ultimately misguided attempt to shore up cable TV’s losses. We reported last month on a recent report that over a million U.S. households canceled their cable service in 2011, most of them switching to cheaper Netflix and Hulu Plus services. Keep in mind that this isn’t the first step in Fox’s plan. Last summer, Fox began limiting next-day viewing of Fox shows on Hulu Plus to cable subscribers; those without cable now have to wait a week after an episode’s original TV airing to view it. The change now proposed by Fox would remove all access to Fox shows unless you have a cable subscription.
The problem with this, and the reason it’s less acceptable than the HBO Go model, is that not all of Fox network viewers have cable subscriptions. Those million lost cable customers rely at least somewhat on over-the-air network television, and millions of rural Americans don’t even have the option of cable service. This proposed system leaves them behind not because of a choice they made, but because of their location.
The transition from cable to streaming is coming; the most cable channels and providers can do with this scheme is slow the transition, and that only serves to frustrate mostly younger, target-demographic viewers already making the move. Fox would be better served by getting on board and figuring out how to rebuild revenue streams within the new paradigm. What Fox and Hulu Plus should remember is that there is an unintended consequence of Fox’s gambit to limit Hulu Plus viewers’ viewing choices. Until Hulu vows not to hobble their catalog with this viewership limiting scheme, I’m done considering a Hulu Plus membership. I’m not interested in buying a streaming service that doesn’t give me full access unless I buy another product that I don’t want, don’t need, and won’t use. I’m sure I’m far from alone.
Considering that at present I cannot afford cable service (and have to scramble to pay the bill that has my internet access on it), losing the free access to Fox shows would mean that I wouldn’t watch them at all. The question then becomes, does Fox even want an audience?
Good grief.