Hulu. A word that one year ago meant nothing, now it is a household name. What is it? Hulu is a site where anyone can legally watch full episodes of TV shows and some movies with limited commercials without downloading anything or paying. It has everything from Lost to Doogie Howser M.D. I think this is a fantastic site. I, unlike many of my friends, do not have a TV in my room, I find it to be too much of a distraction, however I can still be distracted by only my very favorite shows, like Psych and Family Guy. Hulu even has original content, message boards, and movie trailers. To pay for itself Hulu includes short commercial breaks but they are only twenty seconds to two minutes long. It's even possible to get hulu on a internet accessible phone and watch it anywhere. Episodes of new tv shows tend to appear the day after they premiere on TV, but for less commercials, it is worth the wait. Unlike sites as Surfthechannel, Megavideo, or Youtube, The owners of the video allow the video to be hosted on Hulu so it is both high quality video and legal. Hulu has grown so much as a source of entertainment that they even host clips of the Olympics. Almost any TV show is available on Hulu and is only a click away. It even usually takes less time to buffer than youtube. Even the most technology impaired can watch their favorite shows by typing in four letters into their browser. However, what is this doing to television? Now that almost any show can be watched online without purchasing cable or a television set will the prices plummet? Will people stop buying new expensive electronics all together? Will this unravel the fabric of our economy? I don't think so, as simple and easy it is to watch a show relatively commercial free online, it stil doesn't beat watching a show on a full-sized television screen. The only downside seem to be now I can never escape the distraction of new episodes of Burn Notice, which admitly, is the reason this post is so short.
No comments:
Post a Comment