What’s The Deal With Yahoo View?

Last week, we told you about Hulu’s decision to end its free plan in order to fully embrace its subscription model. At first, the news seemed like a rainy cloud for cord cutters everywhere who depend on Hulu to catch them up on new episodes of network TV. But there is a silver lining to this news. Say hello to Yahoo’s new streaming service, Yahoo View.

Yahoo View promises to deliver the same next-day viewing experience as Hulu for free. All you have to do is sit through a few commercial breaks. The new streaming service boasts that it will have the most recent episodes of shows from ABC, NBC, and Fox eight days after each episode’s original air date. Yahoo View also promises that it will offer episodes of other network shows, day-after clips, and full seasons of anime and Korean dramas all on its ad-based system. Because Yahoo has burned us before, I decided to investigate. What is Yahoo View? How’s the quality? How unbearable are the ads? And most importantly of all, is the new streaming service worth your time? Here’s what I discovered:

DIDN’T YAHOO ALREADY FAIL OUT OF THE STREAMING GAME?

Yes it certainly did with the ill-fated Yahoo Screen. Yahoo Screen made the same promises Yahoo View is making — ad-supported free access to beloved shows, next-day clips — but it also promised original content and access to sports live streams and clips. So what happened? The short version is there was a lot of energy and optimism and not enough money.

As Decider’s own Scott Porch puts it, “Yahoo Screen had no significant revenue stream. It was a growing service with great content, but nobody was paying to watch it.” Basically, it’s really hard to make a profit from only advertisements when you’re a digital streaming service.

SO HOW IS YAHOO VIEW’S FUTURE LOOKING?

View has two big advantages over the now-dead Screen — its partnership with Hulu and its lack of original content investments. The Hulu distribution deal gives Yahoo View access to a huge arsenal of content, something that Screen desperately needed. Also, because Hulu has completely abandoned its free model, Yahoo View is now the only (legal) streaming service that offers up-to-date episodes for a variety of shows in one place for free. Likewise, not investing in original content will save the company millions.

Also, Yahoo Screen has been teasing some interesting functions for its not-yet-available app, including the ability to search for characters, actors, and spoiler information. It’s an interesting, if not vaguely confusing concept. So the bottom line? Yahoo View is stable, but proceed with caution. We’ve been burned before.

GOT IT. WHAT’S THE SITE LIKE?

Kind of like a bare-bones Tumblr meets Hulu. Yahoo has abandoned Screen’s fussy and purple splattered aesthetic for something more simplistic, thank god. However, Yahoo View’s images refused to load on my work computer for several hours. So if that happens to you … it’s normal I guess? One of my colleagues experienced the same problem. If the site were in beta mode, I may have let that slide, but from what I can gather from Yahoo’s press release, this is the final product. Points off. However, when the site’s images do load, it looks nice.

The one thing that throws me is how Yahoo has chosen to categorize it’s content. Based on Yahoo’s press release and the articles about the service, the main selling point of Yahoo View is that it features content from ABC, NBC, and Fox. But instead of this new streaming service categorizing its content by these big names, the service has opted for more traditional streaming categories. But by far the most confusing part is the site’s “Popular Shows” category which is prominently featured on the home page. Currently, the category features Quantico and Empire next to The Brady Bunch. Yes, those are three popular shows, but I don’t think there’s much fan overlap between them.

HOW’S THE SEARCH?

Great. No complaints there. The service seems to have taken a page out of Hulu’s book for the better.

HOW’S THE STREAMING QUALITY?

Again, very good, and again, likely due to Hulu’s deal with Yahoo. Watching episodes on Yahoo View is almost identical to Hulu’s free service, which will be the saving grace of this site. The picture is clear, there’s little to no lag, and the audio is on point. Overall, it’s a great streaming experience, which probably has a lot to do with Hulu. Every time you pause your show, this message from Hulu pops up.

WHAT’S THE COMMERCIAL SITUATION LIKE?

Kind of intense but not unmanageable. From what I’ve seen, there’s typically a 15 second intro commercial followed by three two-minute commercials for comedies and five two-minute commercials for dramas. However, I was often given the option between the 30-second interactive ad or a two-minute break (Pro tip: Always choose the two-minutes. They’re longer, but those interactive ads have a higher chance of malfunctioning and trapping you in internet adland.)

SO SHOULD I BE EXCITED ABOUT YAHOO VIEW?

Sure. Yahoo View offers episodes of your favorite shows all on one site for free. It’s really hard not to like that. It was smart for Yahoo View to unleash its new streaming service before the fall TV season hits. Once the streaming service works out its bugs, Yahoo View is going to be a good streaming destination to play TV catch up. There really aren’t many hidden gems like you find on Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video, but that’s to be expected from a new service.

TL;DR? Yahoo View is worth checking out. You can try it out for yourself at view.yahoo.com.