Well, this isn’t the least bit surprising, but it seems three television networks trying to work together on one video site may not have been the best of ideas.

According to Mediaweek, things are not going swimmingly over at Hulu, which is jointly owned by the television networks ABC, Fox and NBC.  The short version of the story is that the advertising sales teams for the networks are locking horns with the team at the online company, and neither side is playing fairly.

It seems the network teams have never liked the fact that Hulu has its own ad people, and in turn, Hulu ad people keep breaking the company rules to keep ad slots from going to the network people.  Hulu will promise better performance than the network guys will, and while they aren’t supposed to promise which shows or networks an advertisers ads will appear with, they keep doing just that.  Supposedly it is all of this in-fighting that has kept CBS from putting its shows on the popular site.

So, why should this concern you, the common viewer?  Well, this bickering between the two ad teams is leading to confusion in the marketplace, and the less ads on Hulu, the more likely it is the site will finally go to some form of subscription basis.  The article also says that Hulu’s ad revenue is not keeping pace with its growth, another marker against the site continuing to be free.  Add in the fact that Comcast is looking to buy NBC, and this could mean the network would leave the site, and things aren’t exactly looking up for Hulu at the moment.

In general it seems that the attitude towards free streaming television sites is changing, and this could be a very bad thing for the consumer.  Being able to watch television on the Internet has become the staple of viewing for many people, some going as far as to give up normal television in their homes, so this could be a major blow to many people.  Sadly it doesn’t look like something the consumer can do much to fix, but it is better to be fore warned.