Meanwhile, NBC and Fox only get paid when you watch the TV shows on TV or cable, which gets them Nielsen ratings and subscriber fees. Internet revenues from the likes of Hulu are puny. So they can’t afford to lose viewers to Web video shows on TV when they need them to be watching TV shows on TV. That’s the gist of Zucker’s quote.
Longer term, this anti-customer strategy will fail. (See: Music industry v. Internet.) But perhaps it saves the networks a few years, and could open more opportunities for the cable industry to build up their on-demand content and technologies so that subscribers at least keep feeding the monster $80 a month.
NBC Boss Explains Why Boxee Users Can’t Have Hulu (GE, NWS)
My 2 cents: Go all the way or don’t do it at all. The networks should put all their weight behind web technologies like Boxee. Hell, make their own (isn’t that what hulu is?), I don’t care! I think this is the quickest way to skirt this issue of ad revenue (hello, watches on Hulu will give 10x more info then Nielson ratings, eg IP, Location, Time of viewing, browser, OS, etc). No brainer if you ask me!
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