Should we really attempt to have Hulu play nice with cable, as stated in Los Angeles Times com?
The Times’ piece Monday on Hulu’s growing pains raised an awkward question about the media conglomerates that produce the television industry’s most popular programs: how dependent are they on cable and satellite TV operators? As my colleagues Dawn Chmielewski and Meg James reported, a number of programs on cable networks have either been withheld from Hulu or restricted to brief windows on the site. Even one of Hulu’s founding owners, News Corp., has yanked cable programs off Hulu. One alternative being contemplated would be to create premium tiers on Hulu for cable programs, available free to pay-TV subscribers and (possibly) for a fee to everyone else. Such a move would protect the pay-TV incumbents’ business model against the online upstarts’ ad-supported approach. But why should Hollywood be defending cable? Shouldn’t the studios be supporting an array of distributors to maximize their audience, rather than trying to protect the incumbents against competition? Not necessarily — i
