Hulu responds on PS3 blocking, sort of

Last month, free on-demand streaming TV service Hulu started blocking PlayStation 3 users from accessing content without saying a word… Until now.

G4TV has received an answer, sort of, from a customer service agent named “Rob”.  In summary of the lengthy response, there appears to be a legal issue between Hulu and Sony…

“Everything we do is with an eye toward achieving our long-term goal of maximizing the content you can access as conveniently as possible in a way that ‘works’ for the content owner,” reads the response I received from customer service. “In the short-term that may require us to make some tough decisions, but we only do so when we believe it improves our long-term prospects to build a more enduring, legal solution to that same problem.” Says “Rob”.

The response continues…  “Distribution availability across platforms — theaters vs. TV vs. recorded media like DVDs vs. online streaming vs. mobile phones — was always implicitly or explicitly controlled in that world,” continues the explanation. “But a few factors have made the barriers between those platforms more permeable: the rise of the web, increased broadband availability, the ease of digitizing video, and the increase in the computing power of devices like gaming consoles, set-top boxes, and mobile phones.”

“However, in the near-term,” says Hulu, “the windowing strategy is still dominant in the business. Billions of dollars flow in across these different windows, and entire companies are organized around them. Nothing productive comes from flouting that reality (except to law firms who work on the occasional lawsuit).”

At no point does Hulu ever really, truly answer why they are blocking PlayStation 3s from accessing their content. If this issue is a legal hook related to a content partner of Hulu, as the response implies, it won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

“We hear your frustration, and solving it remains our full-time job,” concludes the note from Hulu.