The Brits pay a TV tax and they get the BBC (which happily streams its programming online to UK citizens), while we Americans rely on advertisers like Budweiser and Pfizer to interrupt our TV shows five times an hour with ads for beer and Viagra. Unfortunately, the only advertiser that seems interested in buying time on Hulu is the Ad Council preaching about reckless teen driving. Mainstream advertisers just don’t believe that it’s worth the investment to buy online commercials. It’s the same reason why newspapers can’t seem to figure out how to make any money online. So, as Hulu has become more popular, the studios have gotten panicky about their content. Lately, whole seasons of shows have started to disappear from Hulu in the run-up to their release on DVD. It has quickly become clear that if masses of people begin to use Hulu as an alternative to traditional television; and TV studios can’t monetize that audience, you can bet that Hulu’s programming will dry up. But Hulu’s audience will only grow so much, right? Only geeks like watching TV via the internet. Hulu will max itself out on the early-adopter crowd and then plateau out. Even if you plug your PC into a big-screen HDTV, who wants to click around with the mouse inside of a 42″ giant web browser? Only geeks, right?

A few months ago, a few of these more progressive-minded geeks got together and created (I use that term rather loosely) an application called Boxee. All you needed to do was load Boxee onto an ordinary PC or Laptop, plug it into your big screen TV, and VOILA! You had yourself a set-top box that streamed internet TV. Plug in a remote control, and you didn’t even need to get up from the couch! Boxee brought Hulu to the masses. It is an entertainment center platform allowing users to pipe internet radio, Picasa and Flikr photo-albums, and local hard drive content directly to their TV’s for easy and intuitive browsing with their remote control. But the KILLER application was always Hulu. Literally, you could sit down on the couch, turn on the TV, select a show with your remote, and be watching the latest episode of The Daily Show in under 90 seconds. But you don’t have to take my word for it:

quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo.

Alas, it was too good to last.

A couple of months ago, the studios began to notice that Hulu was exploding in popularity, much faster than SNL Tina Fey clips could account for. It didn’t take them long to figure out that Boxee adoption was the culprit. The studios delivered a swift and stern message to Hulu. “Pull your content from Boxee, or else.” And about 30 days ago, Hulu did precisely that. Or rather, they ordered Boxee to quit pipelining their content. And Boxee complied, outraging their community of users. Today, a new version of Boxee is about to drop, and rumor has it that Hulu content is back in, although Hulu won’t be able to officially verify that users are watching their content from within Boxee or within a regular web browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer. In the coming weeks, we’ll see how Hulu responds. I hope they realize that Boxee is simply giving internet TV viewers what they want (a fast, intuitive interface), but maybe that’s too much to ask for.

In the meantime, while the TV studios slug it out with the people who are trying to innovate on their behalf (the irony is killing me), the underground scene is JUMPING with Hulu competitors! I watched the Superbowl over on Justin.tv (with live chat!), and the NCAA Final Four on Ustream.tv. Those same sites, as well as one of my new favorites Joox.net, also have movie and TV channels that loop whole season’s worth of content. It may not be on-demand, but it’s still pretty cool! But wait, there’s more! Check out the full list of Hulu alternatives, carefully compiled and reviewed by the good people over at ZeroPaid.com (their motto is “if it’s free, it’s for me”).

And I have a message of my own for the TV studios. Figure out your beef with Hulu and fix it fast before it dies. Because when some hacker figures out how to hook Boxee up to one of these other streaming TV sites, the genie really WILL be out of the bottle. And you guys will have learned NOTHING from the music industry’s mistakes.

Jaxon Lee works on the bleeding-edge of the tech market in what he considers to be his dream job. He wakes up every morning, and gets to talk to people about the latest and greatest gadgets! During his downtime, he blogs about new technology and media convergence over at um-reloaded.blogspot.com. Jaxon is happily married and living in Atlanta. His “Check The Tech-Nique” column is exclusive to Urban Thought Collective.

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Sorry for the hiatus, folks. Work travel, moving into a new house, yadda yadda. But I’m back and things should be a little more consistent. So where did we leave things? Ah yes, I think we were talking about internet media. My last two posts were about internet radio, so I decided this week to look at internet television.

I’m a relative new-comer to the great Southeast mecca called Atlanta. And, as I’m a social creature, I have been known to visit the local bar and live-music scene. Atliens are interesting folks, the music scene here is awesome, and I love meeting new people. Here’s the way it usually goes: the wife and I are listening to DJ TBone (local flavor!) and enjoying some drinks; we meet some new friends, and have some laughs. And then, just as everyone is good and buzzed, and we’re all feeling good, she drops the bomb.

Wife – “And you know we don’t have a television,” she says, giggling. (Somehow, despite my best efforts to steer her off-course, she works it into EVERY conversation.)

Our new friends – (blank stares. The laughs have stopped.) “You mean you don’t…”

Me – “Uhm, we *do* actually have a television,” I say, with a little nervous laugh, giving my wife the please-stop-making-us-look-like-nutjobs-to-our-new-friends look.

Wife – “Well, sure we do,” she says. “I mean, it’s physically a television-”

Me – “Forty-seven inch Hi-def LCD,” I interrupt.

Wife – “But we don’t actually GET television. No cable, satellite, or even rabbit ears! Tell them, baby,” she says, looking at me, grinning.

Me – (At least she’s proud of my geeky achievements.)

Our new friends – (More blank stares. Again. This time, their mouths are slightly open.) “How do you watch American Idol?” they ask, looking at me. “Or Dancing with the Stars? Or CSI?”

Me – (Yup. In the span of five minutes, we gone from that cool couple they met at the bar, to thinking that we are a complete freakshow. And when I explain to them our TV-watching process, I will most assuredly remove all doubt.)

Perhaps my readers will reserve passing judgment.

We watch all the TV shows and movies that everyone else does. We just watch them on-demand over the internet. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. I LOVE TV shows, but I HATE television. TV shows are 24 to 52 minutes of my favorite actors, writers and directors doing what they do best.

Television is a 2000-channel, 24/7, screaming & ranting, commercial-break ridden, A.D.H.D. channel-surfing, wallet-busting, empty-headed political pudit-filled, NIGHTMARE of an experience.

I stopped watching sometime in 2003, and I haven’t looked back since. Not only was cable TV breaking my budget at the time, but despite all the bucks I was shelling out, nothing was EVER ON 90% of the time! So, we cancelled cable and I subscribed to Netflix for $20/month. We had a HUGE on-demand movie catalog, as well as a ton of TV series box-sets to choose from. Life was good, but like a good geek husband, I was always trying to “upgrade” the system.

In 2004, I discovered the wonderful world of peer-to-peer file trading, referred to by insiders as, “The Scene.” (For background, here is a fairly brief, plain-English web article). Essentially, I was able to download TV shows on-demand only days after they aired (as opposed to months via Netflix). So, I did what any self-respecting TV-loving geek would do. I hooked up an old PC to my television and started downloading! As long as I was okay with engaging in quasi-legal internet file-trading, as well as the labor involved with searching and clicking on each show I wanted to watch, again life was good. By 2007, The Scene was EXPLODING and I was able to watch TV shows literally MINUTES after they aired. And, best of all, I had learned how to broadcatch (automatic TIVO-like downloading of my favorite shows), so now I didn’t even have to work for it!

However, in 2008, a funny thing happened. Remember Napster? I mean the old free and illegal Napster of the 90’s? It totally brought the music industry to its knees. And the RIAA refused to provide a cheap, easy and LEGAL alternative until iTunes hit the web, three years too late. Well, apparently the TV industry learned a valuable lesson from their music brethren. In March of 2008, Hulu launched. And there wasn’t a minute to spare as broadcatching was just about ready go mainstream like the old Napster. (Non-geek friends of mine had actually heard the term bittorrent!) Not only did Hulu render my entire broadcatching setup obsolete, but it also changed the ENTIRE TV game. Probably forever.

Hulu is a Fox/NBC joint-venture that allows you to watch 90% of network and basic cable TV shows (ABC is doing their own thing) streaming and on-demand in your web browser. And I have to tell ya, blown-up to full-screen on a 47″ LCD, Hulu looks frickin sweet! And did I mention they have movies? It’s like TIVO, only free! Of course, the downside is the commercials. Yes, commercials on the internet. Only four or so per show, but they are usually boring and repetitive. A small price to pay, in my opinion, for true on-demand television. You can setup your own queue, follow a show’s RSS feed, and even watch live events (they aired all of the presidential debates and the inauguration). But don’t take my word for it. Check out this quick SNL clip on HULU.

Next time, we’ll talk about the recent Hulu competitors and some new directions that internet TV is taking.

Jaxon Lee works on the bleeding-edge of the tech market in what he considers to be his dream job. He wakes up every morning, and gets to talk to people about the latest and greatest gadgets! During his downtime, he blogs about new technology and media convergence over at um-reloaded.blogspot.com. Jaxon is happily married and living in Atlanta. His “Check The Tech-Nique” column is exclusive to Urban Thought Collective.

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Why do we expect the season finale to automatically be better than any single episode? Is it because networks and producers often make the finale twice as long so we expect it to be twice as good? Do we expect something extra because we will have to wait until the fall (or longer) before we see the next installment of our favorite show? Maybe we should all blame whoever shot JR Ewing, or dreamed it, for making a cliffhanger-OMG-water-cooler moment so memorable that we demand every finale, every season, to be that good.

Bottom line, most writers, producers, actors and reality contestants are giving you their best shot every week. In a climate where shows have been cancelled after airing just one time, no one can afford to take a week off. There are “stunts” that producers can use, like casting Britney Spears in a bit part on CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” (she was pretty good) that will sometimes deliver more viewers that week, but not necessarily make a for better show. Frankly, in an attempt to be shocking and memorable in a finale, many shows miss the basic point of servicing the characters and storylines that made their show popular in the first place.

“Grey’s Anatomy” was pretty good. After enough on again off again, see other people, don’t see other people, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) FINALLY decided to try to put their relationship back together. When you saw the outline of the house in candle lights you had to say “Awwww.” Cristina (Sandra Oh) FINALLY told Hahn (Elizabeth Reaser) to “shut up and let me work,” and the Chief (James Pickens) FINALLY told Hahn to do her job and “teach her.” The other high note for me was a terrific guest spot by Jurnee Smollett as the Beth, the first patient to survive Derek and Meredith’s trial.

Yet, it wasn’t a homerun to me. I’m starting to feel a little of what has been the wide spread criticism of “Grey’s,” that often they don’t behave as responsible doctors. When Alex (Justin Chambers) doesn’t get an automatic psych consult for his “girlfriend” who tried to commit suicide and continued to treat her, Izzie (Katherine Heigl) shouldn’t have only threatened to have him arrested, but done it. What Alex was doing was not only unethical, but in some states illegal. Then there was the boy incased in cement. Did he have parents? Did any of the other kids? Did anyone plan on calling them? Meredith orders a second brain surgery and doesn’t tell the Chief? Then she gets a pass because of the personal history between the Chief and her mother?

Still, I found myself more often enjoying the writing and performances more than questioning them. Executive producer Shonda Rhimes is running a tight ship.

“American Idol” was both a great surprise and a HUGE disappointment. David Cook’s upset was right on time! “ZZ Top” letting him be the front man on their song “Sharp Dressed Man” was dope! “Seal” was blazing! I wish he was on tour now. Donna Summer was in great voice and looked fantastic. Michael Johns and Carly Smithson’s duet was strong. Syesha Mercado looked amazing and was blowing as usual. Although David Archuleta didn’t win it all, he was a gracious as runner-up and will be just fine on tour playing to the same crowd of young girls who are making the Jonas Brothers rich.

On the flipside, the shameless promotions killed the show. If “The Love Guru” promo that seemed to last an hour wasn’t bad enough, Mike Myers had to come on stage live in character and do ANOTHER ten minutes. Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. promoting their film “Tropic Thunder” in a Gladys Knight and the Pips video seemed to last an hour. Jimmy Kimmel came out to do a short set and he’s not even on FOX! It felt like a bait and switch. I tuned in to see “American Idol” and got an infomercial!

The “Idol” finale two seasons ago (I think) when Prince was a surprise guest was one of the best television music shows I had ever seen. It made me want to go buy a ticket to see the “American Idol Tour.” I didn’t… because usually I only go see bands in concert, but the fact that I even considered it was proof that the show was hot and played to its fans. This year, “Idol” had the two most popular contestants in a showdown, and they seemed like afterthoughts on their own show. It should have been their night.

I can’t wait for new auditions!

Let me get my remote.

Darryl Bell is an actor and Chicago native, best known for his roles in classic TV series “A Different World” and Spike Lee’s “School Daze.” His unique television commentary is exclusive to Urban Thought Collective.

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