Hulu

[David Smith]

This is a repost from our group page. Darcie advised me this was a better home for a discussion. Thanks, David

Welcome all. We're planning on posting news about Matchlight and things we are interested in from time to time. To start the ball rolling I thought I'd post this link to an article in last weekend's Sunday Times about one possible future of tv distribution, Hulu: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_...

As a production company the prospect of Hulu excites me. If it respects our rights as "authors" of our work and becomes an itunes for audio-visual content then it could allow us to by-pass the broadcasters altogether and distribute globally and directly to those interested in the things we find interesting. That's exciting. It removes many of the existing barriers to making films and frees us from the strictures of a broadcaster's remit and schedule - more films, shorter films, longer films, more difficult films or more niche films.

More worrying would be the prospect of broadcasters and Hulu cutting their deals without reference to the indie community. Existing power structures are very canny when it comes to perpetuating and deepening their influence.