Rumor: Hulu Will Soon Require Viewers To Have A Cable Subscription

TechCrunch:

If you love watching TV shows on Hulu but don't have a cable subscription, things could get a bit more complicated in the near future. According to the New York Post, Hulu could soon start requiring its users to prove that they also have a cable or satellite subscription.

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Comments

[Buellers Ferris]

07:39 PM on 05/02/2012

Once again, the goal is to convince people NOT to pirate...

RIP Hulu.

[kfdan]

10:14 AM on 05/02/2012

Hulu should be gone yesterday ... it's apart of the Bulkinization process of the internet that is being undertaken to segment the net into exclusive zones of communication and access. As I look on the home page, political page, and tech page of Hufpo, I see political clowns performing 'she said, he said' games that have very little to do with the reality that communication as we know it will be gone in the not too distant future. " “The government would be able to search information it collects under CISPA for the purposes of investigating American citizens with complete immunity from all privacy protections as long as they can claim someone committed a “cybersecurity crime”. Basically it says the 4th Amendment does not apply online, at all." CISPA is what this site should be looking into ... damn the torpedos ... full speed ahead.

[RemoveTheGreedyOnes]

07:29 AM on 05/02/2012

Good riddance to a useless service...

[French Toast]

03:54 AM on 05/02/2012

No matter how hard certain companies try, the genie is out of the bottle. Taking down a site like Hulu will only result in some other company benefiting, such as Amazon or Netflix. Even Crackle could benefit from the takedown of Hulu.

Hulu got out to a great start but the owners always seemed interested in cashing out after a fixed amount of time.

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

01:01 AM on 05/02/2012

I quit cable 25years ago.I watched Hulu when they had some good shows like Sons of Anarchy,Justified and others.But those days are gone,they carry a lot of crap now.

[flashfyre]

12:58 AM on 05/02/2012

It will be a loss but the internet will find a way to recover.

The music industry thought they could sue the internet into oblivion, and preserve the $20 music CD business. Today high quality audio downloads are available for a buck almost everywhere, and the barrier for entry is much lower for aspiring musicians.

The movie industry thinks they can preserve the distributors "as they exist today". No, the same thing will happen for visuals. Goodbye cable -- forever.

[deluxebrand]

06:29 PM on 05/01/2012

who needs any of that stuff when there is Pirate Bay

[RutherfordLaser]

06:22 PM on 05/01/2012

I ditched cable to go with Hulu, $10 or whatever monthly sounded better than the $75 I was paying to watch 2 or 3 shows a week on cable. I've found I wouldn't care a bit to not have Hulu either, should it come to that.

If you live in the right area, an antenna beats both options and is free.

[Larz99]

03:36 PM on 05/01/2012

I have Netflix, I've been considering getting Hulu and cancelling cable. If I have to cancel cable to get Hulu, then I just won't get Hulu.

I'm just one person, but this just seems like a horrible business move.

[Larz99]

03:36 PM on 05/01/2012

I meant subscribe to cable, not cancel...

[unbozo]

02:56 PM on 05/01/2012

Then Hulu can go oout of business as far as I'm concerned.

[The JillyBean]

01:37 PM on 05/01/2012

I had hulu before "authentication" was around. The only difference between being signed in with authentication and before is the date of availability of content. But I can also watch hulu as part of Dishonline from the satellite provider's site, which also includes all other channels in my subscription package.

I see no problem, as long as Hulu still provides a streaming only pay package for those who do not want to have a cable/satellite package. Otherwise this is surely an in for Netflix to scoop up business. We need to give cable/satellite providers competition.

[democles]

12:40 PM on 05/01/2012

And Hula will learn that people won't visit so often.

[stevi]

12:29 PM on 05/01/2012

I don't have cable for TV, only for my internet connection. I do have a TV, stuck away in the basement or somewhere. I watch the things I want to see on my computer. Hulu is horrible, in my view. Hulu has "buffering" and there are no words to discribe how much "buffering" annoys me. I watch Netflix, which could be better, but is way better than Hulu. I download stuff that I want to see from other sites. I will NEVER use Hulu the way I use Netflix, because Hulu is just horrible for me to try to watch. Besides I have little interest in most U.S. network television. I do love British TV though, it seems to aimed at an audience older than 12.

[Ichigo Kurosaki]

12:22 PM on 05/01/2012

If this becomes the case, then Hulu can kiss my DirecTV-watching butt.

I shall give them not a whit of time and effort. I left cable because the price kept going up and the quality kept going down in direct proportion to the increases.

[The JillyBean]

01:41 PM on 05/01/2012

When they speak of cable, I believe they mean cable/satellite customers. I have Dish and with "authentication" I get quite a bit of extra Hulu programming.

[Ichigo Kurosaki]

08:49 AM on 05/02/2012

I don't plan on giving them my account number.

[Rick Eriksen]

12:22 PM on 05/01/2012

What's Hulu...and why would I care...in fact if TV just went away it would be a lot better for all 31 million people that seem to care about Hulu...

So that is what drivers are doing when they are not talking on cell phones, or texting while they are driving they are watching TV...

Also i noticed this kind of trend...people meet when they go out and instead of talking to each other, they all fire up thier little TV thingys, and then watch TV and leave...what's with that...