Sean Reiser

For the last few weeks, other then the news and Lost, any TV I've been watching I've been streaming through boxee using an old computer hooked to my TV. The boxee interface worked well, even on my Old School Standard Definition television. I was just preparing an article explaining how much I've enjoyed using it.

One of the best parts of boxee is that it aggregates content from a number of online streaming services including Hulu, where you can find content from NBC and Fox. As there are ads in the stream you can watch the programs, the studios and hulu makes money on the advertising pretty much the same model as TV. I was so happy with the service that I was planning on moving away from my DVR and instead use this online solution for time shifting.

Today it was announced on boxee's blog that Hulu asked boxee to remove their content. Earlier in the day, it was also announced that that Hulu's content was also being announced from tv.com. This is being done at the request of the content providers (FOX and NBC).

Where we can still go to hulu,com in a web browser it's not as simple. As I mentioned I have an old computer hooked up to a SDTV so it's much more difficult. Because of the resolution of a SDTV, I'd wind up having to connect to that computer using another machine. Boxee's interface, on the other hand, is clearly visible from my couch.

The reason why the iTunes music store has been so successful with music is that it's easier to buy a song off of iTunes then download it. This is a lesson that the TV industry needs to learn, if you make it easier for us to get your content, we will pay or tolerate commercials. Otherwise there is incentive to use bittorrent instead. It's bad enough that there's a delay of 1 to 8 days for content to appear on Hulu. Making it harder to use is just another step towards moving towards piracy.