Hulu Content Back on Boxee--In a Roundabout Way
by Sam Dean - Mar. 06, 2009Comments (1)- Related Blog Posts
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Last month, we covered the news of online video powerhouse Hulu's removal from the open source Boxee media center. Boxee has become a very popular and flexible media center application, allowing people to break away from their computers and watch online content on big screens with remote controls. It's especially popular for use with AppleTV. However, under pressure from large broadcaster content providers such as NBC, Hulu was forced to reluctantly request that Boxee remove support for it. In a blog post, Boxee officials lamented that Hulu was the most requested content provider on Boxee. Now, you can get Hulu on Boxee again. Here's how.
As The Apple Blog reports, and as discussed at Silicon Alley Insider, Boxee users can get Hulu content without any help from Hulu. The keys are Hulu's large set of RSS feeds, and extended support for RSS in Boxee's new alpha version, as discussed by the Boxee folks here. As Silicon Alley Insider explains:
"Boxee's latest version includes its new App Box -- essentially its version of the iPhone app store -- and a new RSS reader ideal for video feeds. This means that Boxee users will get access to Hulu's public RSS feeds, of which there are many."
This solution is not as ideal as full support for Hulu in Boxee, but it should be enough to satisfy the many people who want Hulu on Boxee. (Note that there is not a new version of the Boxee alpha for Ubuntu yet.) The two companies continue to discuss ways that they can work together.
 When discussing the removal of Hulu support last month, I ased the question "when will content providers wake up?" It benefits content providers to have more free and open channels for people to get at their offerings. Furthermore, the majority of attempts to block free, distributed access to premium content fail, and open source media center applications are becoming more powerful and flexible than ever. I'm not going to be surprised to see Boxee make its way into set-top boxes and other platforms, and as that happens, it behooves big content providers to wake up to the fact that media increasingly flows freely.
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