What Happened Between Boxee and Hulu, and When

Last week, Jeff Zucker, the CEO of NBC Universal, told Congress that it was Hulu’s decision to ask Boxee to remove Hulu content from Boxee’s video player. Hulucination first broke the news that Zucker’s response contradicted what Hulu and Boxee had said about the situation. As best as Hulucination can gather, this is the timeline of what happened. I’ve culled this from official blog posts and discussions with Boxee. Hulu and NBC continue to not respond to requests for comment.

Oct. 20, 2008: Boxee releases a Hulu app for its video platform. Boxee’s software aggregates streaming content from across the Web and makes it easier to put TV-on-the-Internet back on your TV. In order for Boxee to succeed, Hulu was a must-have. Boxee says that it told Hulu it was integrating Hulu into Boxee. At that time Hulu did not take issue with it.

Sometime between November 2008 and February 2009: Hulu’s owners, News Corp. (NWS), and NBC Universal learn that Boxee is airing Hulu video, but outside of the hulu.com packaging. All of Hulu’s ads continued to air on Boxee, but Hulu’s surrounding infrastructure did not carry over. In his congressional testimony, Jeff Zucker would later call what Boxee was doing “illegal.” Recently, Boxee CEO Avner Ronen told Hulucination, “We don't think we have ever done anything ilegal with regard to Hulu.” (sic) At the time, Boxee says it was delivering hundreds of thousands of streams to Hulu, and thus its advertisers. Thus it’s dismayed at Hulu’s obstructionism.

Someone makes the decision that Hulu should request Boxee take down its Hulu app. Jeff Zucker says it was Hulu’s management team. Hulu says it was the “content providers who requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product.” To reiterate, neither NBC nor Hulu has responded to Hulucination’s request for comment.

Around Feb. 4, 2009: Hulu calls Boxee and tells Boxee its content providers have asked that Hulu block Boxee from integrating its content. Boxee protests, but Hulu stands firm.

Feb. 18, 2009: Boxee voluntarily takes down the Hulu app to maintain its relationship with Hulu.