(Photo: flickr.com/ky_olsen

Don't be alarmed, but it's very possible you wasted money on that smart TV. [PC Mag]

Companies might be reconsidering Amazon Web Services, after one outage too many. [Wall Street Journal]

Netflix is preparing to roll out new social features, like the ability to share what you've watched (if you want) through the company's Facebook app. So you'd better finish watching every available episode of "Say Yes to the Dress" on the double quick. [TPM]

Doesn't look like Poke is going to dethrone Snapchat juuust yet. [GigaOm]

Speaking of online video: is Hulu about to lose a lot of employees? [AllThingsD]

We hope you didn't bet any serious money on the new version of Myspace turning the old girl around. [The Verge]

Akihabara seemed relevant. (Photo: flickr.com/jkabahit)

Good news! HBO is now on Hulu. Bad news: It's only in Japan. [GigaOm]

While everyone was distracted by the health care ruling, the Supreme Court decided not to rule on another case, concerning whether you can sue a company for breaking a federal law, even if you can't prove damages. Forbes explains why that doesn't make Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga, and Yahoo too happy. [Forbes]

Look, RIM has options, okay? (They're just not great options.) [Reuters]

Amazon is making it easier for developers to create games on the Kindle Fire. Good, because the current selection is zzzz. [Bloomberg]

Yet another I/O roll-out: Google Compute Engine, the company's very own infrastructure-as-a-service product to compete with Amazon Web Services. What, no skydiving to announce it? [Google Blog]

Speaking of the GOOG, they'd like everyone to know Gmail now has 425 million users which, by our calculations, means they've dethroned Hotmail. [TechCrunch]

Photo: Mr. Hyman.

This should really liven up the debate over data caps: Netflix wants Congress to step in. Man, cable companies are just going to love this.

Bloomberg reports that, in a hearing today, Netflix general counsel David Hyman told the House subcommittee on communications and technology that, “When you couple limited broadband competition with a strong desire to protect a legacy video distribution business, you have both the means and motivation to engage in anticompetitive behavior."

Democratic reps Henry Waxman and Anna Eshoo both made supportive-sounding remarks about protecting innovation.

As the site notes:

"The hearing was scheduled as the Justice Department is investigating whether companies including largest U.S. cable company Comcast and No. 2 Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) have created incentives to consumers to watch programming and high-speed Internet through their services to put online providers such as Netflix at a competitive disadvantage, according to two people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to speak publicly."

Excuse us, brb, the timer just dinged on our microwave popcorn.

Sources tell the Post that Hulu plans to transition to an authentication model, meaning access to content will be predicated upon some sort of subscription. Those same sources point to the shift as the reason for Providence Equity Partners unloading its stake for $200 million.

What's not entirely clear is just what this shift applies to. The Post's wording suggests it's all of Hulu, but the changes could well apply merely to the premium service Hulu Plus. We've reached out to Hulu for a comment and will update when we learn more.

Digital rights advocate Public Knowledge immediately released a statement from its president and CEO Gigi B. Sohn condemning the move:

Restricting access to legal content will only drive consumers to find illegal content. In particular, we are concerned about restricting access to TV programming available over free over-the-air broadcasting. It should be available online, regardless whether anyone subscribes to cable or satellite TV. By putting more restrictions on consumer access to popular content, the entertainment industry only removes any justification for stronger "anti-piracy" laws it is perpetually seeking from Congress.

All other considerations aside, the move is far from a risk-free. Hulu made $420 million in overall ad revenue last year, with CEO Jason Kilar predicting that Hulu Plus will account for more than half of revenue by late 2012. In March alone, the site boasted 31 million unique users. There’s little chance requiring a cable subscription won’t affect those numbers somehow.

That faint popping noise was likely the Aereo team celebrating with champagne.

Battleground via Hulu

Earlier this week, the New York Times chronicled Hulu's trajectory from an upstart streaming video service into something more in the vein of a traditional TV network with its own original programming, much like its corporate masters. Of course, that change has been in the works since January. But as Hulu and Netflix face increasing difficulty in convincing TV and cable stations to hand-over programming in a timely manner, they've put more of an emphasis on creating its own content to fill that gap.

As the Times noted, when Hulu first launched it had a galvanizing effect on the media industry, accelerating the trend toward getting networks and studios to stream shows online. Hulu's owners, including NBC, Fox, and Disney, were always worried that online advertising might not make up for the millions they earned from traditional cable and satellite deals. But after NBC's Jeff Zucker and other Hulu champions moved on, more recently they've been striking streaming deals to make their shows available to subscribers via tablets and smartphones instead.

That explains why Hulu, which now has 2 million subscribers and boasted $420 million in revenue last year, headed to the "upfronts" this week, the annual event where networks and cable channels try to convince advertisers to ensconce their new programming in sweet, sweet ad dollars. There CEO Jason Kilar announced four new shows, including projects involving SNL's Seth Meyers (thumbs up) and "Entourage-r" Adrian Grenier (thumbs down).

That's in addition to the three shows Hulu announced in January: "Battleground," a simulated documentary style show in the vein of "The Office" that follows the fictional campaign trail in Wisconsin and "A Day in the Life," a Morgan Spurlock show looking at the "ordinary lives of extraordinary people," and "Up to Speed," a show from Dazed and Confused director Richard Linklater following around "flaneur" and historian Timothy "Speed" Levitch, which has yet to air.

Aside from the "A Day in the Life" episode about Das Racist--did we mention youthy-ness is part of its appeal??--nothing in the first batch has interested us except "Battleground." "A Day in the Life" isn't enough of a step forward from more interesting offerings from Spurlock (like his FX show "30 Days.") Half an hour about Will.i.am is roughly thirty minutes more than we care to pay attention to him.

But you should go watch "Battleground." (Don't listen to that tech blog, listen to this one!) The show was picked up when Fox, which greenlit the script, passed on airing it. It has an Aaron Sorkin-y speedtalking vibe, if Sorkin cared less about righteousness and more about making jokes and moral gray areas. Plus, there is a love quadrangle--innovative! Of course, "Battleground" hasn't motivated us to pay for Hulu Plus, even though the free trial was a fine supplement to our online viewing, but we're more than happy to watch the ads and probably tool around on the site and rate commercials so Hulu can sell our ad tastes to the highest bidder.

Hopefully one of these new offerings will be able to do the same. As years of watching prime time sitcoms will teach you, original isn't necessarily better.

• We Got Next (2012): Four unlikely friends butt heads on the pick-up basketball court and on the sidelines of everyday life. Starring: Kenya Barris (THE GAME, ARE WE THERE YET?, AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL), Hale Rothstein (THE GAME, EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS), Danny Leiner (THE OFFICE, MODERN FAMILY, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, FREAKS AND GEEKS, HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE, DUDE WHERE’S MY CAR?
• The Awesomes (2013): An unassuming superhero and his cohorts battle diabolical villains, the ever-present paparazzi, and a less-than-ideal reputation as second-class crime fighters. Starring: Seth Meyers (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE), Michael Shoemaker (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON) and animation studio Bento Box (BOB’S BURGERS, ALLEN GREGORY).
• Don’t Quit Your Daydream: A cast of famous musicians travel across America in search of could-have-been musical artists to collaborate on a new song giving them a second-chance at stardom. Based on an award-winning documentary by Adrian Grenier and John Loar.Starring: Adrian Grenier; Produced by Virgin
• Flow: When Ed Dante, a hard-working kid from the wrong side of the tracks is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, he begins an epic quest to deliver true justice. To achieve his goal, he must discover the mysteries of an ancient art, uncover hidden worlds and become a hero to a generation. Starring: Michael “Dooma” Wendschuh (show creator, co-founder and president of sekretagent studios: ASSASSIN’S CREED II (2009), ARMY OF TWO (2008), ASSASSIN’S CREED (2007); David Belle (Founder of Parkour); Produced by Agility Studios (producers of The LXD) and the Shine Group (WHO KNEW? IT’S EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS, APPETITE FOR LIFE)

Good, just not as good as you promised

Depending on where you read the coverage of Hulu's revenue numbers, the picture of the company looks very different. Read Write Web declares that the company turned in a "pretty big year," growing 60 percent and "raking" in $420 million in revenue. But as Peter Kafka points out at All Things D, that falls short of the $500 million Hulu CEO Jason Kilar predicted the company would make in several blog posts.

Mr. Kafka attributes the miss to rumors of soft ad sales which have been percolating for a while. Hulu also was on the chopping block for a while, then off again, then back on. And several of its partners, most notably Fox, either took away next day rights for programming or discussed the idea. All that volatility is sure to make it tough for Hulu to sell ads. 

2011 promises to be a fascinating year in web TV, with Google poised to launch its professional "channels" and Netflix its original web series. Hulu's parents, the major TV networks, have made it impossible for the service to expand to platforms like Boxee and Google TV. Even Apple TV, normally a safe space for corporate greed, has apparently been held up for political reasons.

After basically trying to get himself fired in a Jerry Macguire style blog post about the future of TV, CEO Jason Kilar seems to have calmed down. He is no longer firing off bombs about how, "“History has shown that incumbents tend to fight trends that challenge established ways and, in the process, lose focus on what matters most: customers.” Hulu has a nice mix of revenue streams from its premium subscribers and its high end digital advertising. After watching Google TV flop in its first year and Netflix take a nosedive with it Qwikster fiasco, Mr. Kilar may feel like Hulu and its 60 percent growth is a pretty good place to be. So good in fact, that despite not making $500 million this year, he's going to spend that much on content in 2012.

Can you hear that? The sound of a thousand cords cut.

About a week ago, a GigaOm writer Janko Roettgers stumbled across something big: an integration that would allow anyone who owns a Boxee Box to watch live broadcast TV over the device without having to switch back-and-forth between inputs.

Now, Boxee is finally prepared to speak about the feature. In January, the company will start selling a USB dongle that transforms the antenna on the Boxee Box into a tuner to capture free over-the-air HD TV signals from channels like ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. The dongle is a one-time cost of $49 and the company is currently taking pre-orders.

So that's a little more expensive than your typical digital converter box, which also lets you get free live broadcast TV. But you get some special social juice with Boxee, plus everything in one unit with one remote control.

Betabeat spoke to Boxee founder and CEO Avner Ronen yesterday about why he thinks this could be a tipping point in getting consumers to cut--or at least shave--the cord.

We were talking to David Tisch, one of your angel investors about it, and he thinks it will increase the value to the user exponentially. In an email he called it a “true cable alternative,” when combined with the content that’s already available on Boxee.

The way we see it, for many people, over-the-top video services like Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, VUDU and YouTube are filling a bigger role in the way people consume video. But there’s still a big piece missing. You want to watch local news or a football game or the Oscars or the Olympics or the Presidential address—whatever it is that’s delivered in live broadcast. But if you want to do that today over the Internet, over-the-top is sometimes impossible and other times very hard. So if somebody considers cutting the cord, it will be a big missing piece for him.

Are there people who won’t be appeased with this add-on?

If you live by ESPN and you have to watch every game of the Knicks and the Yankees then, you know, Boxee Live TV would not be sufficient. But if you’re a casual sports fan—you watch the Superbowl and you watch the World Series and you watch the Olympics and you watch the U.S. Open—all of those things are on broadcast. 89 of the top 100 shows—all in broadcast. So there’s a critical mass of content that we believe will provide an alternative to—not 100 percent of households—but we hope we can make something that is attractive to maybe half of the U.S. households.

You consider this a turning point for Boxee?

For us it’s the first time I think that we can talk with users about Boxee as an alternative to cable and being able to answer their most basic questions, which are: Can I watch this game? How do I watch the news? That’s where most people are saying, I don’t think I’m ready yet. If we can get people to make a list of the stuff they watch and then see what’s available for free over the air, and then what’s available for them over-the-top, and then see what’s left on that list and then ask themselves if what’s left is worth $85 a month? I think many people that go through that exercise of making that list come to the conclusion that they are ready to cut the cord.

With a live TV component, do you see yourself going up against Google TV?

No, Google TV has said many times that they don’t see themselves as an alternative to cable, but rather something that compliments cable. If you look at the [Google TV] box and what it does if you want to access live TV, you actually have to connect the cable box. They’re taking a different approach. We think that users just live a different life right now when it comes to the way they watch TV and that cable has lost touch with the way they consume TV. When they sit down to watch something, they don’t just open the TV and start to channel surf. I think that behavior is gone.

So it seems out-of-touch to tether your product to cable?

Like users revolted when they had to pay for 15 songs if they wanted to get two songs—the way music was delivered—I think that the same sentiment is now happening with cable TV. You don’t want to pay $80 a month for hundreds of channels that you don’t really watch. It’s not that you’re not willing to pay for the stuff you want to watch. That’s exactly it. You want to have more control over what you’re paying for.

Do you expect pushback from networks? Have you been in discussions with them?

We’re talking with media companies all the time. I think by now most of them know we’re coming up with Boxee Live TV. On its own, it’s not something new. Broadcast TV has been around before cable TV was there. It’s kind of a forgotten history. People don’t know that they can get this stuff on the air and they can get it on HD and for free. We’d like to remind people that it exists. The media companies, definitely those that own those broadcast channels and cable channels, they’ve been working really hard to generate dual revenue streams. Both advertising and subscription.

So it won’t be the Hulu scenario, where it shut itself off from Boxee. They can’t make it so that the dongle won’t work?

No, they’re required by law to make it available.

Where do see the networks finding additional revenue?

There’s an opportunity media companies have beyond the advertising revenue to start generating new types of subscription services, which I think that the initial phase of it you can see with Glenn Beck doing his own subscription show and Louis C.K. doing a pay-per-view event. Those are shows and content that’s more on the margins. When you talk about 89 of the top 100 shows that are broadcast, you have to imagine that if media companies would start offering premium services around that content that there’s gonna be some traction for it with consumers. If you look at over-the-top, that’s not an environment where people are not paying. Between iTunes and Xbox Live and PS3 and services such as Boxee all of whom have credit cards on file and can make a very quick decision to purchase one time payment or a subscription. The users dissatisfaction is not with content, it’s with the cable companies.

That’s why it makes sense for Boxee to separate working with the broadcast networks versus the cable companies, who are going to fight this until they die. But how do you know the tuner will work?

We tested it in different places. During December we’re going to get it into the hands of early users as well. So we’ll get feedback from consumers. We’re very optimistic. If you don’t have a great reception where you live, you can actually call your cable company and ask for what’s called basic cable. It’s the unencrypted channels—CBS, Fox, NBC, the same channels—you can get them over the coaxial cable and connect that to the Boxee Live TV tuner, so we support that as well. It may be a bit difficult for the consumer, because you’ll get pushed to buy a higher tier package or get some sort of bundle. They don’t really advertise that you can get those channels for a low fee.  You can shave the cord rather than cut the cord.

Have you envisioned something like this for awhile?

Yeah, it’s been in the works since the beginning of the year. I cut the cord—stopped paying for cable—about five years ago. That’s what actually prompted me to start Boxee, was when I decided I’m not watching cable enough to justify paying for it. Three years ago, I started playing with different antennae and that has been my set up at home for awhile. I’m using Boxee for over-the-top. I have a 7-year-old kid and we watch football together and we watch tennis together and we do it over the antenna. But we had to switch inputs every time we did it. That just didn’t make sense. That’s what pushed us to bring those two together. Even for myself, the first time I didn’t have to switch inputs, it immediately made a big difference.

What about social features with the Live TV add-on?

We’re adding a little Boxee-ness to it. You’ll be able to see how many people are watching a channel right now. And you’ll be able to see if your friends are watching a show right now. We’ll do more of that. We’ll integrate social and we’ll integrate additional data to enhance the viewing experience.

Can you use it like TV and store something from network TV?

Not in the initial release. The driver for us was live broadcast. We were watching stuff on Netflix and VUDU and Hulu. But if we hear the feedback from users that they really want us to do DVR, we have another USB port, people are using it to connect storage space already, I guess we can do a software upgrade and enable them to record.

What did you make of Logitech talking about the money they had lost with Google TV? Do you think set back web TV?

At this time, it’s not gonna be a big revelation that the initial version of Google TV did not live up to either their expectation, or more importantly user expectations. It’s a tough problem to solve for the consumer. Logitech made a bet on Google and took a big financial risk in terms of manufacturing, inventory, and then a big advertising campaign around it. A very big presence in retail stores trying to explain Google TV to consumers that are walking into the stores. But all that effort eventually didn’t pan out, obviously. There was no viral effect. Same goes for Apple TV, by the way, the initial version didn’t do extremely well, even though it’s Apple. Second generation Boxee is doing, I think, much better and is more attractively priced.

I think we’re all still working at it and solving the problem for the user and trying to find the right mix in terms of features and simplicity and price point and content. I don’t think anybody has completely nailed it. Until now.

You think explaining this to people is the biggest barrier?

I think as an industry we need to a better job simplifying the product. The cable TV experience is not broken. They love the content. They may be upset with how much they pay compared with how much they watch. This is something we’re trying to address, but the experience for many people works. To be able to turn on the TV, to watch something, record something, that works. So for you to come and replace it, you have to come up with something that provides the users with the content and then the experience is still, I think, a challenge for us all.

Very Twin Peaks-y background, no?

Maybe it's the sudden threat of Apple TV and Google TV, but content providers have decided to play nice with Hulu. The CW Television just signed a five-year licensing agreement to stream in-season episodes of the CW's programming on both Hulu and Hulu Plus, the platform's subscription service.

Unfortunately, the deal faces the same problem plaguing Netflix: non-instant gratification. Hulu Plus subscribers will have access to the five most recent episodes the next day after broadcast, but free users will have to wait eight days after airing on. NB: Let's not forget that piracy shot up when Fox tried that same strategy.

In addition to "Gossip Girl," the shows available on Hulu starting later this year will include CW's fall line-up, namely: "Ringer,"  “Hart of Dixie," “The Secret Circle,”  “The Vampire Diaries,” “Supernatural,”  and few others Blair and Serena wouldn't be caught dead watching.

No soup nazi for you, Google!

After letting just about every big tech titan on the block swing by to kick the tires on Hulu, the conglomerate of Comcast, Disney and News Corp. has decided the best move is to keep the old gal after all. Bidder's included heavyweight like Amazon and Google, who reports indicated was willing to pay a premium for the service. 

In the end, the sale revolved around how much content was being promised along with Hulu, at what price and for how long. Even in the midst of the negotiations for a sale, networks like Fox were pulling back the amount of programming that made its way from television one night to Hulu the next morning.

But the networks seem to have decided that even a billion dollar sale and hundreds of million in annual licensing fees was not enough to make up for the lack of control, and potential danger, that selling Hulu to Google or Amazon would entail. Undoubtedly Google would have wanted to bring Hulu's shows to YouTube and Amazon to their streaming service, Amazon Prime.

That would mean the networks would have two very big, savvy players in the digital ad market pushing their content on proprietary platforms. For an industry obsessed with keeping its programming locked down tight, and not upsetting its partners in the tradition television space, this might have been too much to swallow.

As Peter Kafka put it, "Because it’s the TV shows from those three companies that give Hulu almost all of its value. And while those shows have helped Hulu build a big Web business very quickly — Hulu has said it’s on track to generate $500 million in revenue this year — that’s not nearly as important to Hulu’s owners as their core TV business."

We never meant to hurt anyone.

Reed Hastings has a surprise blog post up this morning announcing that, after all the sturm und drang, Netflix won't be splitting its business in two after all.

The announcement comes just as all the major players have submitted their bids to purchase Hulu, the web TV platform created by the big TV networks, which no longer appeals to them as a business.

Taking a look at two of the biggest names in the web TV space, it's becoming clear that the internal battle between analog and digital television is creating real problems for companies hoping to straddle both worlds.

From the beginning it was obvious that Qwikster was an ill-considered stopgap measure. Netflix tried to pivot away from its original DVD-by-mail business and focus on streaming video only. But they did so by raising prices, which infuriated subscribers and hurt their quarterly numbers.

Long suffering Hulu CEO Jason Kilar published another "look at me guys" blog post, noting that Hulu now has over a million paying subscribers and that it anticipated subscription revenue would account for more than half its overall revenue in the next twelve months.

Unfortunately for Mr. Kilar, the issue isn't the health of Hulu's business. By owning a web TV platform, the big companies that back Hulu--News Corp, Disney and Comcast--are essentially cannibalizing their core revenue stream from the big cable companies.

It's the same dilemma that has plagued Netflix, forcing what had long been a consumer favorite to commit public sentiment suicide. By raising its prices for DVDs and then spinning that business off into a separate entity, Netflix hoped to free itself to succeed as a streaming video company.

In the case of Hulu, the big networks would rather not have to explain to their partners on the pay television side why they are building great web TV. That can be somebody else's battle, and the networks can just collect hefty licensing fees.

Dish Network, Amazon and Google are the final three bidders for Hulu, which leaves three very distinct possibilities for this unwanted child of the major TV networks. Dish Network would be the simplest choice for the owners, because it wouldn't fundamentally disrupt any of what Hulu is already doing online. Amazon and Google, by contrast, both have big platforms for delivering streaming video over the web, and would likely be keen to integrate Hulu with their current offerings.

The big difference between Amazon and Google is that the search giant has never been able to build a good reputation as a platform for selling content. Amazon, by contrast, can position itself closer to Apple, a premium storefront for moving digital goods.

It was only a short while ago that Dish executives were complaining in public about the negative effects of Hulu on the TV industry. But it seems they have come around and are keen to own one of web TV's best brands, or at least its backend technology.