Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Hulu Blocks Another Third Party App

They giveth, they taketh away.  Not happy with just ticking off all Boxee users, Hulu has moved on to blocking the next software media player, MyMediaPlayer using Hulu to stream online video content.

MyMediaPlayer

MyMediaPlayer is an Adobe Air app that gives it's users the ability to view Hulu.com's library of TV shows and movies in fullscreen TV mode.  MyMediaPlayer is open source and leaves all Hulu content and ads intact.  It was really a simple alternative interface to view Hulu content.

Unfortunately Hulu seems to be on the warpath to scratch out any third party apps that use Hulu content to allow the viewing of that content from anything other than the stadard Hulu Browser.

The developer of MyMediaPlayer wrote an open letter to Hulu outlining the reasons Hulu should reconsider the rejection of his player.  Boxee who recently was asked to block the Hulu content on their HTPC app are also appealing to Hulu, but I seriously doubt we'll see any progress on this front as Hulu seems to have been "forced into a box" by it's owners, CBS and Fox who are protecting their cable network business model (supposedly provides over 49% of their revenues).

So for now, I would put little hope in seeing Hulu survive in any third party app going forward.  That will affect many Media Center users, SageTV users, XBMC users, DivX Connected users and even PlayOn.  It looks like its just a matter of time before the backward-looking media execs kill off any progress made on the Hulu App front.  Sad, but true.

via NewTeeVee.com