The Boxee Pitch

Boxee launches "The Boxee Pitch", for users to collaborate on building a pitch to content partners

Last week the disappointing news that Boxee was forced to remove Hulu support from its service, has sparked up some conversation around the web.  

On Boxee’s Twitter page they explain frustration in simple 140 character blurbs, “disappointing. sad. frustrating. we will work on all fronts to bring it back for you.”  

Users have expressed their frustrations on blogs across the web.  Brian Newman, who runs the media blog Spring Board Media expresses, “Some idiot lawyer who doesn't understand the Internet or where things are going heard that Hulu programs were on Boxee.”  

Lifehacker, a site for tips and downloads on all things hacking related, has published a step-by-step guide to how to reinstall a working Hulu in Boxee.

As a Boxee Alpha user myself, I find its service progressive and very exciting for the future of home theaters.  Boxee offers a simple way to get Internet video content to your television.  Of course, you can watch content on your TV without Boxee, but Boxee simplifies the process by aggregating the most popular sites and allowing you to browse through their content with the ease of the Apple remote. 

If anything, Hulu should have been content with the fact that Boxee was bringing its own users to Hulu’s content.  Last week, Boxee generated just over 100,000 streams alone for Hulu.   Unfortunately, the situation isn't fully in the hands of Hulu, as it is owned by News Corp and NBC.  In a recent blog post, Hulu explained,

"While we stubbornly believe in this brave new world of media convergence — bumps and all — we are also steadfast in our belief that the best way to achieve our ambitious, never-ending mission of making media easier for users is to work hand in hand with content owners...

For those Boxee users reading this post, we understand and appreciate that you're likely to tell us that we're nuts. Please know that we do share the same interests and won't stop innovating in support of the bigger mission."

We should expect to see video piracy rise and downloads of illegal Torrents grow amongst Boxee users.  These shows were originally available through Hulu, with the proper advertisements contained within the shows. 

In response to all of the above, Boxee has set up a site titled, “The Boxee Pitch,” which brings together users and calls them to help build a pitch to content partners on why they should embrace Boxee.  It’s a Wiki, which can be edited by any user and meant to be a collaborative effort.  

Boxee received a $4 million dollar investment from Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures back in November of 2008.  The company continues to rack in new sign ups and receive positive media coverage.