Boxee: Nuked By Hulu And Apple TV

February 26th, 2009

Apple released an Apple TV software update a few days ago. As with previous updates, it wiped Boxee from my Apple TV.

Reinstalling Boxee is just a matter of repatching the Apple TV with a USB patchstick. That’s the good news.

The bad news is I am, at present, not highly motivated to do so. My primary use of Boxee on the Apple TV was watching programming provided by Hulu. Because of a recent move by Hulu, Hulu content is no longer available via Boxee. And because of this, the appeal of Boxee was severely reduced.

And the Apple TV software update feels a bit like yet another barrier to using Boxee. Going through the process of creating another patchstick now just sounds like more trouble than it’s worth.

I personally feel odd about this, because a while back I voiced my desire for Apple to “do something” regarding the increasing utility of Boxee and Hulu on the Apple TV. I meant Apple should change their content offerings, putting Hulu on the Apple TV proper, or providing television show rentals, etc.

Well, both Hulu and Apple did “something” which was basically make Boxee a lot less useful. And the end result — I’m back to purchasing television shows via the iTunes Store.

So the lessons learned: Content is king. And a reminder that corporations are often competitors, and not above tossing a few sucker punches in there while the users (the referee?) isn’t looking.

After the dust has cleared, Boxee has to improve their product. If they can’t bring Hulu back, they need to get some other form of content that will motivate me to reinstall it on the Apple TV. The ball is back in their court — unfairly lobbed back by Apple and Hulu — but it’s in their court nonetheless.