At Hulu’s Upfronts presentation this morning in New York, the company announced the launch of a new consumer-facing feature that lets you tell Hulu to stop suggesting content you don’t want to watch. The feature was teased previously at CES in January as something that was in the works.
The option will appear in the user interface, underneath the content suggestion. From here, you can tap a button that says “Stop Suggesting.”
“We want you to be in control of the experience. If you don’t like something, you should be able to tell us,” said Hulu’s Head of Experience, Ben Smith, announcing the new feature.
When Hulu’s app makes misguided recommendations, it’s a bit more in-your-face compared with other streaming services, like Netflix. That’s because Hulu’s main screen – called “Lineup” – is an algorithmically-derived list of personalized suggestions. But these suggestions can be off, at times. That’s especially true if you haven’t bothered to set up separate user profiles, or enabled ones for guests visiting your home – like the babysitter.
And then when the babysitter watches the Kardashians, you’re screwed. The suggestion for that or similar reality programming could then appear in your Lineup with no way to remove it.
That changes with the “Stop Suggesting” button, which Smith says is launching this month.
