News Corp Bans Cablevision Customers From Watching Hulu

[Sledgstone 8,672]

http://gizmodo.com/5665721/news-corp-bans-cablevision-customers-from-watching-hulu

News Corp. and Cablevision are currently stuck in a classic cable vs programming "we pay too much, you pay too little" fight. But this time around News Corp. is flexing more muscle by banning Cablevision Internet users from accessing Hulu too.

When the clock struck midnight on Saturday, Cablevision customers could no longer watch FOX on their TV. That's because News Corp. (which owns FOX) and Cablevision couldn't come to an agreement on the fees that Cablevision should pay News Corp. It's something that's happened before with other networks and other cable providers but the new twist is that News Corp. is using their stake in Hulu to ban Cablevision Internet users from accessing FOX content on Hulu as well.

The problem this raises is that if programmers are using a ban of accessing Hulu (an internet website, after all) as leverage against a cable provider for TV fees, it's only going to kill the hope and promise of net neutrality. If cable providers and programmers continue to have their way, the web could turn into the big fucking mess that cable is.

And even worse, what happens when a cable provider and progammer, like for example Comcast—which owns NBC and thus has a stake in Hulu—one day decides that in order to access NBC content on Hulu, you need to have Comcast and other cable providers get locked out? It's a messy situation that's bound to get messier with the new and different avenues of content we can access now. [All Things D]

Any time warner cable customer should know about their "Roll over or get tough" campaigns where they want customer input on their money wars with content providers. But Fox/News Corp takes the cake with this bullshit. Banning cablevision high speed users from accessing their videos on hulu has nothing to do with the cable fees related to their channel programming. Hulu covers its costs with advertisements not with channel fees for cable customers. This is why we need Net Neutrality.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

asinine

[Myk JL 1,731]

I'd be pissed off if I found that somehow affected Hulu Plus on a Playstation Plus account.

[Eppy 3,446]

news corp needs to get sued for extortion