Boxee's New Band-Aid Solution To Its Hulu Problem: RSS Feeds
This story was written by Rory Maher.
A couple of weeks after Hulu pulled its content from Boxee, the internet-streaming service announced on its blog today that it has introduced a new built-in RSS reader that gives users access to feeds from popular video services like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Video, Yahoo! (NSDQ: YHOO), YouTube, andyesHulu. But don't be fooled: The RSS reader doesn't begin to solve the company's content problems when it comes to Hulu. Yes, users will be able to access Hulu's library of TV shows and user-generaed video through the feeds, but that pales in comparison to watching that content on the Boxee platform via the old application. Boxee's explanation: "While it's not as attractive or robust as our previous Hulu application, it will additionally support Hulu's public RSS feeds." Even if it is a Band-Aid solution to the problem, though, Boxee deserves some credit for being resilient in the difficult world of online content licensing.
Boxee's problems began a couple of weeks ago when Hulu pulled its content from the Boxee service as part of discussions that Hulu's owners were having with cable operators to launch an exclusive online streaming service only for cable subscribers. Boxee has been unable to entice them back to the service.
By Rory Maher