On Hulu blocking Boxee
The display of an ad on Hulu can be broken down to three features:
- Video – the presentation of a “sponsored by” clip at the beginning of the video, and perhaps a few commercials.
- Banner – the presentation of a matching banner on the video page.
- Interactive – the ability to click-through the ads to a link provided by the advertiser.
When watching Hulu videos with Boxee, #1 remains intact but #2 and #3 are thrown out the window. You can argue the importance of these items if you want but the fact is the advertisers are paying for these features and when you watch a video with Boxee the advertisers aren’t getting what they paid for. That’s all it takes for them to make a call to legal to have the plug pulled.
