Hulu

In this article, techcrunch reports on how Hulu is going to change its current subscription model and force people to have a cable subscription to use their service.  This is a drastic change for the company, and an example on how a good can become excludable.  Before this change,  anyone could watch a show on Hulu.  Now Hulu is excluding something that they provided for free and force the consumer to have a cable subscription.  Excluding a good is quite common, and this is a good example.  What I find interesting about this example, is that it may have negative consequences for Hulu.  Hulu earned its money through ads it used for commercials.  Now with far less people using Hulu, their revenue from ads will be far lower.  It will be interesting to see if this difference is made up by the cable companies.

Source:  http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/30/rumor-hulu-will-soon-require-viewers-to-have-a-cable-subscription/

BP

BP, which stands for British Petroleum, had a larger profit drop this quarter than most analysts expected it to have.  The article says that this is due to BP having to pay for the oil spill that it had in the Gulf of Mexico.  I see this as a type of negative externality.  By having the oil spill, BP caused harm to many and now they are paying a type of pigouvian tax.  While it is not a pure pigouvian tax, it is still a sum of money the government is forcing BP to pay due to the negative externalities it caused.  Whether it is exactly equal to the social costs is questionalable, but I believe this demonstrates how a pigouvian tax, or something very similar, can be used to make up for a negative externality.

Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/bp-earnings-q1-2012_n_1466565.html?ref=business