South Park, MSNBC, The Daily Show “Get it”. Hulu does not.
TV March 26th. 2008, 11:36pmSome companies are slowly realizing their is a “Worldwide” part to the “World Wide Web”, and they are slowly making their video based entertainment available on it. I’m deeply appreciative of this effort.
South Park and The Daily Show have two of the best websites ever. I love both of the shows, and I’ve been watching them since their beginnings. They have nearly all of their content available, streaming, for free, accessible online. Who needs to worry about a few pesky advertisements (as long as they are optional and unobtrusive) when the entire archive of a show is available, for free, online? This is such an easy, and awesome solution, and I’m happy that the American Media companies are slowly “getting it.”
I’ve heard rumors South Park isn’t available everywhere yet from people scattered around the globe. It’s still rolling out in The UK and Australia, and possibly other countries, but Korea is up and running now! Wee!
Making things easier to connect to, easier to watch, yet possibly advertising supported is one way to beat piracy and yet not make everyone hate you in the process. I’d rather watch The Daily Show when it was released, but waiting a day for it to be added online is an acceptable compromise now that the entire archive of the show is available for viewing anywhere.
South Park has been one of my favorite shows for the past few years, but digging up older episodes was harder to do. Now if I want to watch a show, I can check out their website and see anything they’ve done. If the point of making a television show is to promote a point of view, or to entertain, then the only way that is accomplished is by making it available for viewing to as wide an audience as possible.
MSNBC’s politcial coverage is top notch. I like Keith Olbermann’s stuff, and I’ve been watching Countdown and other MSNBC programs because they are available, streaming, online. CNN got removed from my cable package. There is no English language news source ON television anymore, so if I want to keep up with politics or news, MSNBC’s video player was the single best, easiest source for news I could watch online. CNN might have videos, but it’s not organized by show, or topic, so why bother sorting through it all? MSNBC’s organization blows CNN’s out of the water.
These are websites that “get” it. I’m so appreciative of the effort, I’d be MORE willing to support something they’d do monetarily, even though they are giving things out for free.
I’ll have to again state my hate for Hulu.com, which is stupidly unavailable for use in Korea. This website puts television shows online, but kneecaps their service by making it only available to Americans in the continental USA. Most broadband users in America probably appreciate this, but over here in Korea, land where American television goes to die, it’s a total waste. I’d love to discover new shows, and would even tolerate watching some advertising to do it, but I’m not afforded the option.
It works for MSNBC, South Park, and The Daily Show, but not Hulu? Why not?
2 Responses to “South Park, MSNBC, The Daily Show “Get it”. Hulu does not.”
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March 27th, 2008 at 12:29 am
I enjoy both Netflix (my brother’s account) and Hulu from the states via an open VPN.
Hotspot Shield is free and works well, but they only allow a couple of hours worth of viewing per month. http://anchorfree.com/downloads/hotspot-shield/
I went with a compnay that I had a discount for. Not the best out there, but I got a deal for two years that only set me back $36. Depending on traffic, sometimes I have to let the movie or show buffer for a little while to make sure that there are not any interruptions during playback.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:31 am
After watching a few shows, I think those footing the bill (NBCUniversal, Saturn, Bank of America, Chevy, etc.) don’t want to waste their investment on people in foreign countries who will likely never be consumers of theirs. It does cost money (electricity, bandwidth, and computer wear and tear) to provide these types of service; therefore, they are protecting their bottom line. Hulu isn’t the only one blocking access overseas, all the networks do it as well.
However, I do like how hulu now allows one to watch a movie preview at the beginning of the stream to avoid any future commercial interruptions during the TV program’s or film’s playback. That being said, I don’t like the limited amount of episodes that they entice you with as they want you to get hooked into buying season dvd sets from later seasons.