So hulu came out of beta and invite-only yesterday to much praise and adoration from the Internets.
The basic idea from the company (backed by NBC and News Corp.) is rather than fight torrent and illegal downloading, profit off the fact that people will watch entire movies and TV shows online…provided the quality is good enough. I took a test run last night and found the service to be top notch. The shows offered presently are pretty slim but there are some good ones…Family Guy, The Office and 30 Rock. More after the jump…
There are also some classics like Airwold and The A-Team. The stream starts quickly and set up is a snap. The movie choices are much smaller but if you were stuck in an airport somewhere and didn’t have a DVD, the chance to watch Lebowski or the Usual Suspects would hold one over until for a while.
Combining Apple TV, Netflix and something like hulu will make a lot of people (including me) consider ditching cable or satellite for cheaper, more selective content choices. Think about the shows you really…I mean really…watch on TV. Unless you’re completely sedentary in your lifestyle there are probably only about 5 or 6, I know that’s the case for me. Right now I think it would be possible to survive using AppleTV, something like hulu and a Netflix account. That would mean heading to a sports bar for college and NFL games and no more mindlessly watching a WAC hoops game on late Tuesday night. But really who does that more than once or twice a year? And is it really worth $1000/year.
Costs involved - DirecTV w/ HD, Sunday Ticket and ESPN Game plan =1350/year
Netflix = $204/year
AppleTV – $299 + 4 shows x $30/year = $420 (only $120 year thereafter)
Over the air HD attena= $60 (Local channels)
Savings = $700 +/-
That’s a tempting proposition, especially if you put together a setup with a media center PC that can output HD.
