Hulu: Hulu Blocks Boxee, TV.com, Kicks Early Adopters in the Fac. Boxee beta officially available. Hulu: Get Hulu Content on Your TV without Hulu's Help. Not Coming To Hulu: Last Week’s “Saturday Night Live” Highlight. I didn’t see “Saturday Night Live” last week, but NewTeeVee informs me that there was one highlight: Former “Doogie Howser, M.D.” star Neil Patrick Harris and a cast of of dozens performing the theme song to “Doogie Howser, M.D.”
So why didn’t I embed a clip of the sketch from NBC.com or Hulu, the joint venture between GE’s (GE) NBC and News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox? Because NBC didn’t have permission from whoever actually owns the rights to the theme song, NBC confirms. (News Corp is the owner of Dow Jones and this Web site.) Bummer! Especially since the clip was one of the show’s “Digital Shorts,” which are designed to be viewed on the Web, à la “Lazy Sunday.” You can still find versions of it on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube, though NBC’s lawyers are busy hunting them down–don’t be surprised if the following clip doesn’t work by the time you get to it: And much more often, the people who make TV shows and movies aren’t interested in serving that stuff up–legally, for free–anyway.
Turning the TV into a 'social-media center' LOS ANGELES--Boxee wants to give Steve Ballmer what he wants.
The Microsoft CEO complained recently how unsocial the television set is compared to the Web. "My son will stay up all night basically playing Xbox Live with friends that are in various parts of the world," Ballmer told The Washington Post. "And yet I can't sit there in front of the TV and have the same kind of a social interaction around my favorite basketball game or golf match.
" Boxee, a start-up that will launch a test version of the service on Monday, has plans to enable users to transfer their digital content from computers to their TVs and eventually turn the TV set into a "social-media center," CEO Avner Ronen said. Sure, lots of other companies, including Apple and Microsoft, are trying to tie the PC to the TV. TV.com wants to be a social Hulu - Download Squad. CBS, which owns the online TV portal TV.com recently redesigned the site, and today the company is announcing deals that will allow it to show online video from PBS, Sony, MGM, and other studios in addition to the Hulu and CBS content that's already available.
In other words, you can add TV.com to the long list of online video portals, most of which are showing pretty much identical content. What CBS hopes will set the site apart from the competition is the existing user base that uses the site to view TV listings, episode guides, and the site's social features. The site has active forums, reviews, and a ton of information about TV shows, actors, and other entertainment related items. What it doesn't have is a user friendly interface for browsing online video. If you click on Videos or Shows, you may very well get to a page that has information about and video clips from a TV show. TV.com certainly has the potential to be a major player in the online video space.
Boxee now in public alpha. So you know I’m the UX consultant for boxee, right?
Well they’ve been in private, invite-only alpha since June, and already they have 200,000 users. Today at CES they announced a new version available to the public. That means you no longer need an invite to get in. With the new version comes a bunch of bug fixes and great new content: the entire Joost library, MTV Music videos, and BBC iPlayer (for UK users only). I’ve been playing around with it since New Year’s Eve, and all I can say is WOW. boxee is still in alpha, which means that you have to be patient and deal with a few kinks here and there. If you join the alpha, be sure to add me as a friend using whitney@whitneyhess.com. I’m really excited about the paradigm shift that boxee can trigger in the way we consume digital media of all kinds. Now go try it out! Related Posts: