Apple rumored to consider bid for Hulu video service - Page 2

we also ditched cable last year. We use an antenna for network, and use TV for all the obvious reasons: apple's streaming, picture and sound quality are the best thing available short of blu-ray. MLB.TV works great on my TV too.
Netflix is unavailable very often, 2-3 times a week i would bet. We have NEVER watched anything on netflix that didn't choke and buffer, no kidding. At least they finally have a few HD titles, although they don't look as good as 's, and I have yet to view a netflix HD with 5.1 sound.
We will probably just go back to basic cable soon and ditch netflix altogether since we get a discount for having more services from our cable company,
Cable with 30mbit + basic cable $80 add HBO for $17 or get a package deal for $100 with a few different premium services.
30 mbit cable alone is $80... no shit man. Then you include Netfix old price for us which was $10.... other than netfix being totally on demand it will be hard to justify their price for such shabby service and mostly old and b-movie selection

Not so if Hulu has been sold to somebody else along with 2 or more years of exclusive access to the content.


'Yahoo has reportedly offered to pay up to $2 billion to acquire Hulu if the deal includes four or five years of exclusive access to current TV shows and older movies. However, Hulu's owners have reportedly been willing to offer the five years of access but only two years of exclusivity.'

We have BBC iPlayer and had Spotify for years before the US. Netflix is coming to the UK early next year (although don't expect content parity with the US obviously). We also have smaller services such as 4OD and if you can keep the bile down there's even access to Murdoch's tabloid sewage through the Xbox 360 streaming stuff.

The problem is most likely your internet speed -- not Netflix.


Apple certainly does not need Hulu to launch a multi-platform live and recorded video service (MLB on Apple TV and iTunes Festival apps do that extremely well) or for Hulu's brand. Apple typically buys for talent, relationships, and technology and not for market share or brand.

If Apple is looking at Hulu, I suspect it is to tighten Apple's relationships with the networks to offer a subscription-based TV or film/TV content package and possibly to lock up some patents.

I don't see Apple moving big into streaming video just to compete with Netflix and Amazon VOD for catalog content, but I think Apple wants that catalog content to go along with a subscription package for current-season shows. The challenge will be building a Comcast-killer content package when you need Comcast NBCU's content to do it. I'd like to see Apple acquire and/or partner with cable companies to revamp their UIs and leverage the content into a TV/computer/iPad/iPhone package; that would cut down considerably on Comcast and Time Warner Cable's apprehension about Apple moving deeper into the content business and give the cable companies some leverage against Netflix, Amazon VOD and network web sites, but it doesn't look like things are moving that direction.

Netflix streaming content in the US is terrible. B-list TV show episodes and movies you'd likely never rent at a store. Honestly, I can't imagine how the UK could get less content than we have in the US. What would be the point?

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John you seem really negative on Netflix, so I agree - it probably isn't for you. That said, I disagree that their content is terrible. They offer by far the biggest catalogue of on-demand flat rate titles anywhere, and it isn't true that they have nothing but B titles and stuff you would never rent in a store. I've watched a major blockbuster almost every night this week, and there are tons of TV shows I personally like. I think the reality is that you don't like their programming, and that is fine - just don't use them.

We use Netflix because it allows us to control what comes into our house, especially advertising, which is often more objectionable than the programming itself. You can exercise control of the programming because you at least know what the show is about, so you can choose to watch or not. But with the ads, you can't, and the networks don't appear to make any intelligent choices in what adds run when. I don't know about you, but as for me... I don't want my 3 year old son's viewing of discovery channel africa interrupted by commercials featuring mostly naked girls gyrating in soap suds all over a car hood in an attempt to sell a hamburger, and that is what it has come to in the USA. So, netflix + Apple TV gives us a viable alternative to unplug from the stream of raw sewage that is spilling out of the cable box.

As always, YMMV.

How about giving Netflix props for offering streaming service for FREE all these years?

The price for Netflix rent-by-mail is actually the same price or cheaper than it was, say, five years ago when there was no streaming. They added streaming for free; now it's established and they're charging for it.

I have a thoroughly average DSL connection and Netflix streaming looks and functions great on my 42" LCD TV. It takes it a few seconds to buffer at the beginning and if I fast forward, but that's pretty much the only downside. It's a reasonably HD picture, with the compression only getting obvious in fast moving scenes with a lot of detail or very dark, low light scenes (where a certain amount of macro-blocking and banding become evident.

All in all, comparable to cable HD. Not sure what's happening with the folks claiming terrible lag and PQ. As I say, I don't have anything special in the way of bandwidth.

My real gripe is with the streaming selection and moving window comings and goings, but those are entirely a matter of the rights owners intricate machinations to squeeze every possible dollar out of their holdings.

Huh? Practice M&A law much? A company's assets - including its IP, contracts, customer lists, etc. - are precisely what a purchaser obtains in an acquisition. (Part of the acquisition due diligence is making sure that those contracts don't have restrictive assignment or change-of-control clauses, of course.)

And yes, that *is* what I do for a living, so I speak from a decade+ of personal knowledge!

chorttle chorttle -- wha? Apple TV is an amazing product; when we got ours we ditched the $100+ per month cable bill, and everyone who's come to our house and seen it wants one.

Go back to Redmond.

I'd guess (strongly) that your problem isn't Netflix, it's your broadband provider. Or maybe device, if you're using a Wii or Playstation. On our Apple TV, in 2 months of daily use (multiple hours per day), we've only had 2 or 3 instances of videos stalling or hiccuping.

For a supposedly smart guy like yourself, you tend to assume a lot, don't you? We have a Windows-free household. The only products from Redmond in our house today besides Office for Mac is our Wii (which nobody bothers to play anymore) and a few DSs. You want to know what Apple products I have, Mr. Smart M&A Lawyer Guy? Figure out what those letters and numbers in my signature mean...

As for the Apple TV being an amazing product, well, we thought so too -- at first.

But the ATV2 requires a computer with iTunes up and running to stream anything, MLB.tv has blackouts for a total of six teams where I live, the suddenly-60%-more-expensive Netflix streaming service has a pretty shitty selection and what is worth watching has already been watched, and the iTunes rentals selection may be even worse than Netflix, especially since we already DVR the TV content we care about and don't need to buy it again.

As much as I wanted to like the ATV2, sadly it just hasn't worked out that way. The content just isn't there for us. Hence, my comments about Hulu rescuing the ATV2. The good news is that the ATV2 only cost a benjamin and I could probably get two thirds of that back on fleabay if I got motivated enough to get rid of it.

The comment you made about Netflix is indicative of your overall style, John, and while I totally understand if you don't like Netflix and the Apple TV, lets at least tell the truth. Netscape streaming did not just get 60% more expensive, and you know it. If you only want streaming, your bill isn't going up one dot.

Apple TV + Netflix is, in my opinion, the best game in town right now. I pay $90 less a month for entertainment than before, and I have the added plus of being able to keep my kids from being exposed to trash in the middle of some discovery science show on how they build bridges.

How do you know that?


I use AppleTV.

And, my download speeds are fairly regularly in the 10 - 14 mbps range.

Your comments are no different from my telling you that my guess is you guys have CRT TVs and hence can't tell picture quality.

I don't use iPlayer, as I don't buy a TV license

Of course, PQ is a matter of taste so if Netflix doesn't look good enough to you that's your call. As I say, I typically see something comparable to slightly worse than cable hd, and that's on a dozen or so different Apple TV setups at my house and at the homes of various friend and family. I don't really expect a relatively cheap subscription streaming service to look like Blu-ray at this point, so that works for me. YMMV.

However, you also alluded to "constant buffering", and I've never seen that on any Apple TV rig I've watched. That's merely anecdotal as well, but it really sounds like an issue either with your setup or your ISP, not Netflix's capacity.

The value in Netflix to me is, and always has been, in the content of their DVD delivery service. Streaming content was their own version of a "hobby" as far as I'm concerned -- almost a throwaway -- and I don't see that changing any time soon. So, yes, the combination of the two did go up 60% and, no offiense indended, but you'd have to be a pretty big ATV2/Netflix apologist to overlook that.

There's no value add in what they've done here. They've just raised their rates on something that today is only has the value of a freebie. I don't care if something is $10 a month or $90 a month, if I don't get perceived value for my money then I'm going to object. When my son says there is nothing to watch on Netflix that he hasn't seen, that's when I know their content is lacking.

Here's what I wish they did instead: Admit that, yes, streaming content selection hasn't been good, but in return for a price hike they were going to aggressively go after content that hasn't been available at the rates they've been paying. That would be a real value add, but that's not what they said.

For anyone who thinks I'm unfairly ripping on the ATV2, you should realize that I was literally first in line at my local Apple Store to buy one the day they went on sale. (The store manager had have someone open up the morning's shipping boxes to find one. LOL!) I'd like Apple to succeed with this, but without more content I don't see it happening. Right now it's just another cool tech gadget with a good bit of competition. The only reason I haven't fleabayed mine already is the ability to do some "stupid pet tricks" with it and Airplay that, frankly, can already be done with iTunes, a Mac mini and the HDMI output.

I don't know why we are talking about Netflix anyway. HULU is for sale and $2B isn't allot fro Apple. If they get the content then it makes sense because it would definitely ease negotiations and encourage networks to work with Apple. In the end it could easily be worth the money if it speeds things up and sells more ATV's.


I know there is a handy little app for the ipad (iphone too?) called VLC streamer. It uses the open source VLC code, but it's a paid app. It still "RIPS" but you can stream as it does. Not sure how it works with DVD's connected to VLC. I can give it a shot and let ya know. PM me.

I rip my netflix dvds using handbrake (well I did, before I canceled the dvd portion due to the price hike) - for one simple reason. My dvd players are an xbox 360 and a PS3 - they are both really loud with fans, so you get a better experience when streaming the video instead. Ripping with handbrake is dead easy.

I will be really happy if Apple buys hulu - because the Roku is a piece of crap. Plus they will probably bump up the price a couple bucks and kill the commercials, which would be great.