Last week, Ava and C.I. offered "TV: The rise of Netflix, the fall of Hulu" which led to a huge number of e-mails.
I'll start by noting some of Hulu's response.
A) Ava and C.I. insist that streaming is down at Hulu Plus. Hulu insists that is not the case and adds, "Those numbers are supposed to be private and should have not have been passed on. Someone from Hulu clearly passed those figures on and we would like to know who?"
Wait a minute.
Hulu is saying the figures are wrong but insisting that the figures could only have come from someone at Hulu?
For the record, the figures were passed on from Hulu to Ava and C.I.
But, in the future, when insisting that the figures are wrong, Hulu shouldn't also acknowledge that they had to have come from Hulu -- which is acknowledging that the figures are in fact accurate.
B) This was a broadside attack on Hulu Plus which is still "in its infancy."
Seriously?
I had to look this one up.
For humans, infancy is said to end with walking (when one becomes a toddler).
This year, Hulu Plus turns five-years-old.
That's a long infancy.
C) Hulu insists Hulu Plus members get commercials because commercials keep the cost down.
The cost for what?
What content is Hulu actually producing?
That was the point of Ava and C.I.'s report. Netflix is working with all these creative types and Hulu's got nothing.
The issue for readers was exactly that.
Rachel M e-mailed to say that she was a huge fan of Salem and kept waiting for Hulu Plus to start offering the second season but, three episodes in, she realized it was just another show Hulu was no longer going to provide.
Carl complains about Justified which he got hooked on due to Hulu. "But where they used to provide an episode a week or so after it aired, they now offer me nothing. Oh, I can click on a key and unlock it by entering my cable provider number but I don't have cable. I subscribed to Hulu Plus to get away from cable."
Mary plans to cancel her Hulu Plus at the end of her current cycle "because it's a fraud. It tells me I can watch Justified and all these other programs. But I can't because I don't subscribe to satellite or cable. Hulu Plus is just a rip-off."
"Rip off" was used to describe Hulu Plus in 271 other e-mails. They were called "con artists" or a "con game" in 70 other e-mails. But every e-mail (over 2,400) expressed their disgust with Hulu Plus.
Seems to me that instead of whining that Ava and C.I. let the cat out of the bag on the downtrend in streaming Hulu, Hulu should be more focused on figuring out how to keep the subscribers that they still have left.