I’m sure I’ve mentioned that, due to the fact that Charter Cable Is Lame With Lousy DVR Technology, we are living these few months without television. While I long for the days when I can return to DirecTV and TiVo (generation uno, still going strong and remarkably reliable), our household is making do, watching the handful of programs we watch — and we really don’t watch that many shows — via the various online services.
So far, and much to my surprise, Hulu has been a fairly reliable source of good programming. Except, well, they’ve managed to prove my initial thesis: they don’t really care about the viewer. For some reason, they’ve chosen to delay programming by 24-hours. Mostly this means a lot of telling Jim and Roxanne that we’re on tape delay so no spoilers. Generally this is fine with Jim as he’s often on tape delay as well. We don’t worry about Tim because, well, you have to know Tim.
But now the Hulu has gone and put Battlestar Galactica on an eight-day lag. You read that right: eight frackin’ days. Kirk theorizes that it has something to do with the Zune deal — really, NBC, are you antagonizing loyal viewers seeking a legal option for watching your program to protect a device that nobody owns?
Think about this for a moment. There once was a legal option for watching Battlestar and other NBC programs — one could purchase them from iTunes for a reasonable price. Then Hulu came around and that option was eliminated…watch it on Hulu, the suits decreed. Of course, you’ll be behind a day, but that doesn’t matter. You get the programming free with limited commercial interruption.
And one day isn’t so bad — it seems that most of what we’re watching airs during a two-day period, so we’d be behind anyway. Then they decide, wait!, that one program you like will be delayed for eight days. No rhyme, no reason, no notice. Sorry fans, you don’t matter to us.
I have said it time and again, but once more for the record: when the networks kick and scream about piracy, they need to look in the mirror to see who’s building unwitting pirates. I am willing to pay for the programming. I am willing to sit through commercials. But wait eight days — avoiding spoilers and conversation on one of your hottest shows??? — NBC, you really don’t get it, do you?
This is so totally and utterly lame. I wonder if it is also a precursor to Universal & Apple making up.
Right. Maybe it’s time to test getting our TiVo recordings of BSG over to you.
Of course, you’d probably need a PC to make it work.
This is lame, not to mention nonsensical. The other option is you just watch it for free, now, on scifi.com.