Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

Well, the days of free stuff on the Internet is slowly starting to fade away. I’m still gratified that e-books (in the public domain) are still free, but it looks like online entertainment is starting to claim more of the wallet…

Hulu to Add Subscription Services, Pay-Per-View, Hints Murdoch

At an investor conference held earlier this week, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker revealed that they were looking at news ways to help monetize their joint venture, the video-streaming service Hulu.com. The site, a popular web destination featuring movies and TV shows from content partners including Fox, ABC, Disney, and, of course, NBC Universal, reaches anywhere from 9 million to 42 million users per month, depending who you ask. Although the hosted content is currently ad-supported by way of commercials interspersed into the video streams, the company is interested in exploring other revenue options as well, specifically subscription services and pay-per-view programs.

As much as I understand that Rupert Murdoch must be very, very hard up on money… (insert salacious sarcasm here), I can’t say I’m too disappointed with this decision. I tried watching the junk on Hulu a few times, and can’t say that I’ll miss it if it goes to pay-per-view. And now that I realize who owns it, that explains all the filth on the site. :-p

Anyway, Hulu is just one of many online “vendors” that are starting to tighten their belt, for whatever reason. In my opinion, television isn’t even worth watching while it’s free. But I dread the day that online books may be costly.