Hulu-Economics Part 2: For the Family
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Hulu-Economics Part 1
The “experiment” started off simple enough. I say “experiment” because it sounds better than “mandatory budget cut.” My process began in September of 2008 when my position as an IT Manager was eliminated. In today’s era of broadband and consumer internet products, how many traditional household cost centers could be eliminated, would the savings actually be there and would they be worth it?
The first step was to set a baseline for what I or a typical household was used to. This includes items like phone, cable or satellite TV, Tivo or a like DVR device and high speed internet. Bundled, unlimited local and long distance phone, voicemail, caller ID, etc and 1.5MB DSL connection is roughly $99 per month. My satellite TV bill which included a DVR, local channels and a mid range package was another $85 totaling $184 per month.
Next I needed to look at modifying the existing plans to see where costs could be reduced before taking drastic measures. The initial attempts were unsuccessful. Eliminating options on the TV were limited to very basic choices. Above the basic plan I could eliminate my local channels and the DVR. Neither option reduced the cost enough to warrant. The local channels were needed if I wanted anything other than national news broadcasts and without the DVR, if I wanted to watch a particular show, I had to schedule around it. (And, watch the commercials as something more than a fast forwarded blur!) Still there was a slight reduction of $20 bringing the total down to $164 per month. On to the phone company. There were some reductions I could make there for about $40 per month off the flat fee, but based on usage, I would spend that $40 and then some in long distance charges.
On to the more drastic. While I could not really show great reduction in my bills simply by reducing the current service options, I learned that I could break the internet out of my phone bundle and only purchase a “dry loop” with no phone service for $43 per month. By adding an internet based phone service for $25 a month I kept my unlimited calling, all the phone and voice mail features I had and in fact gained some new ones. At the same time my monthly cost for phone and internet reduced to $68 bringing my total monthly down to $133. I was pretty happy with a 28% reduction in costs but I also knew that, with a little sacrifice, there had to be more I could do with the TV. There were services available, but I just wasn’t sure that they would meet my entertainment needs. Then I realized that an “entertainment need” really wasn’t a need when compared with needs such as, well, food for example.
I called my provider, cancelled my service and looked online for my viewing entertainment. I hooked up a computer to my TV and for $9 per month, joined Netflix. For those of you who don’t recognize that red and white logo that’s plastered all over the internet, Netflix is a mail order DVD rental service. Not having to go to the video store is a great service, but not why I joined. As a member, you also get access to literally thousands of on demand streaming movies and TV shows. Some shows, such as Heroes and CSI are available the day after they air on network television. While my 1.5mb DSL connection was not suitable for high definition streaming, the quality was more than adequate as the distraction I was looking for. Unfortunately, while I had access to an amazing library of movies and some new episode of television, I couldn’t find out how Jack Bauer was going to pull off saving the world on 24 or watch the next episode of The Office. It was adequate, but limited.
Bring on Hulu.
Hulu.com (http://www.hulu.com) is a free website that compiles internet releases of TV shows in one easy place. The content is all streamed to you at a surprisingly high quality with limited commercial interruption. In some cases, the only interruption is a movie trailer or two minute commercial in the beginning. At worst, a 30 second commercial where a two minute break would have been during airing. The release times vary from almost immediate to the following week but the number of shows is astounding. They allow you to subscribe to shows and those shows automatically show in your queue as available. The interface is clean, simple and allows full screen viewing. Is it perfect? No. Sometimes the links direct you to a network’s own site to view, but for the cost and value of it, it’s exceptional. As far as missing the news, I’ve found that between my local newspaper’s website and a national news website, I get more detail and value than I did watching the news on TV. Most importantly, my monthly cost was reduced an additional $56 reducing my monthly bill for phone and television close to 60% from the original $184 to $77 per month.
Are there drawbacks? Sure. I do miss watching TV in high definition but, as bandwidth increases I’m confident that will quickly become more available. I guess I also miss having a DVR but when episodes are available for on demand viewing for weeks before they go away, if I miss something, did I really want to see it that badly? So far, the positives are outweiging the drawbacks. Beyond financial, there is the time benefit. How many hours a week do we lose sitting in front of the TV simply because it’s there? When I went searching for the shows I really wanted to see, I was surprised to see how few there actually were. Now, the TV is only on a fraction of the time it was and I’m finding more time to do the things that, in the past, I never could.