Hulu pulls content from TV.com

Update at 11:38 a.m. PST, with comment from Hulu.

Hulu.com has pulled its content off CBS-owned TV.com, which relaunched last month, Hulu confirmed Wednesday.

(Disclosure: CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.)

Attempts to access episodes of Heroes and other content from NBC and News Corp. partners in the Hulu joint venture, displayed a "video unavailable" message.

In a statement, Hulu said:

Hulu has contractual rights with regards to our relationship with TV.com and we are exercising those rights. Out of respect for their confidentiality, we will not disclose our discussions.

A CBS spokeswoman said the company had no comment.

Hulu also has distribution partnerships with other sites, such as Mojo, MyNetworkTV, and Lionsgate.

TV.com saw a 263 percent increase in unique viewers in January after it redesigned and expanded the site and added user interaction features, according to Nielsen VideoCensus figures cited by MediaPost Online. It has 5.9 million unique visitors compared with Hulu's 4.5 million, according to Nielsen figures reported by Advertising Age.

[ibeetle]

NBC tried this once with iTunes. It did not work out to well for them.
Limiting customers access to your product kind of makes it hard for your advertisers to sell their product.

[GotAMD]

Perhaps if CBS let Hulu stream its shows then NBC and Fox would return the favor. I'm not defending this action, because I think it sucks, but there's more to this story.

[ibeetle]

Oh you mean like

Mary Tyler Moore Show
Archie's Place
Alfred Hitchcock Hour
American Gothic
Barney Miller

These are just a few examples of programs on hulu that are either owned, co-owned, distributed, or co-distributed by CBS or a subsidiary of CBS

[GotAMD]

No, I was referring to CBS shows that are on their primetime lineup such as the CSI shows, NCIS, etc.

[abcd9009]

I think it's more of an issue for revenue sharing than content sharing. If TV.com is streaming videos from hulu - I bet NBC must have demanded a cut on ad revenue from TV.com or CBS. I am guessing that didn't end well (just like the deal between Apple and NBC) so they pulled the plug.
It has nothing to do with you stream my shows and I'll stream yours. It all comes down to $$$

[GotAMD]

I'm not saying that it isn't about the money. It certainly is. All I'm saying is that there is something that these two entities are either doing with their distribution models or the compensatory demands for their content which is preventing them from getting along. I'd like to see those problems solved, but I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that these streaming websites are not profitable (from what I've read) in the first place.

[sanenazok]

Niiiiice: you "forgot" to disclose that tv.com is also owned by CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Inc.

[lang0502]

This is reasonable to pull content. CBS doesn't post their shows on Hulu, so why should NBC and Fox post on CBS's site? I'm sure the goal is to drive more traffic to Hulu, and I have no problem with that. CBS is the one to blame here for not distributing their content more openly.

[TV James]

They didn't forget, unless they added it later. I thought that at first, too. It's just up in italicized text at the top where you'll miss it, instead of being a mini ad in the content like "MSNBC is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC and NBC is owned by General Electric who also produces Wind Turbines and Locomotives, finances most airplane purchases, makes up words like "ecomagination" and is mocked regularly in the hit TV show "30 Rock" which airs Thursdays on NBC.

[toosday]

@lang0502:
Excellent point! As much as I hate closed systems, I have to say that Hulu is only doing to CBS (TV.com) what CBS is already doing to Hulu. It just so happens that Hulu may have the upper hand in terms of popular content, such as The Daily Show, Colbert, The office, etc.

Hopefully, Hulu will use this as a bargaining chip so they can get CBS shows on Hulu.

[alt117]

The most logical reason is the amount of money generated by Boxee/Hulu viewers is pennies compared to the $$ the cable companies pay for content. The cable companies are the real culprits behind the take down.

read the Boxee blog about how many people canceled their cable/satellite service because of Boxee, and it hasn't even started to take off yet.

[alt117]

oops, wrong topic, but same culprits.