Old Media Fail

Things periodically appear on the Roku start screen, things I mostly ignore.
UFC on pay per view! Avatar on demand!

Blah, blah, blah.
Netflix streaming and Pandora are the twin pincers Roku wields to secure its place in our hearts and it needs no others.

But the other day Hulu Plus showed up, and not knowing much about Hulu other than it's what the Burl uses to stay current with 30 Rock I thought I'd check it out. If did the Netflix thing only for teevee, that would be pretty cool.

$7.99 a month, a buck more than my bare bones Netflix account.
Selection looks pretty good, lots of current stuff and a bunch of old shows that might be worth a look.
Oh wait....they show ads?

DEALBREAKER!

It's kinda like when the music dudes thought the solution to piracy was offering lossy DRM riddled MP3s that were hobbled by all sorts of restrictions. Look guys, I use the internet to AVOID those sorts of headaches, I'm sure as hell not gonna pay you to deliver them to my living room.

The Fuss watches more teevee than I'd like him too, given an appropriately Utopian universe to inhabit. But as we're stuck in this one, I take solace in the fact that at least he doesn't get any targeted advertising hammered incessantly into his infant hindbrain. It's bad enough he can spot Spongebob merch halfway across the store, but at least that attraction has grown somewhat organically from his enjoyment of the show.

The Wife, Burl and Fiend stayed in a hotel with cable once when Fiend was about 4.
A commercial for McDonald's came on and Fiend said "Oh look mommy, a funny clown!"

Given the society we have, advertising is inescapable without a lot of draconian measures I'm unwilling to contemplate. But I draw what lines I can, and broadcast advertising in the living room is one of them.