Hulu announces monthly subscription, support for iPhone/iPad, still ad supported

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hulu_plus.php

by coderdude • 16 years ago

42 47 16 years ago

siculars• 16 years ago

Hmm. So for $10/mo. you get... ad interrupted shows, buuut you can see entire seasons of ad interrupted shows on all your iDevices.

How does this function?

ashishbharthi2• 16 years ago

I tried few free shows on iPhone 4 over 3G. Video quality is spectacular. I am not going to buy it because I am already paying for $120/month for cable and dvr.

dailyrorschach• 16 years ago

And this is why I am considering it, in addition to netflix, since I cancelled cable and dvr at that rate.

dinedal3• 16 years ago

I think this is Hulu's attempt to make even more money on the iDevices.

I wonder if the iDevice had Flash, would they be able to do this?

jrwoodruff• 16 years ago

I just wonder if they'll be able to do it at all. Part of making advertising work is maximizing audience. Charging $120 for something I'm already paying for elsewhere (through my cable, Tivo and Netflix subscriptions) seems like a stretch. There's only so much I'm willing to spend to watch television, and my cable/cable internet/netflix bill pretty much maxes that out. Especially when there is still advertising involved.

Maybe if this was more along the lines of a $36 annual fee, similar to Pandora, I would give it more thought.

wmf2• 16 years ago

It looks like Hulu Plus is intended to replace cable, and from that perspective it's cheaper.

wmf2• 16 years ago

I don't see what this has to do with Apple vs. Flash; maybe you can elaborate.

dinedal3• 16 years ago

Hulu's player is Flash based, so theoretically an iDevice with Flash wouldn't need a Hulu App.

whughes• 16 years ago

The answer is yes. Hulu has regularly blocked Flash-enabled devices through various (often circumventable, but still) means. It's just that you never hear about them.

dinedal3• 16 years ago

I wasn't aware Hulu was that defensive of it's content as to block it based on what device is running the browser. That's crazy.

thibaut_barrere• 16 years ago

For some reason, this reminds me of Philip K Dick's book "The Simulacra".

If I recall well, the guy is trying to escape advertising bots of some kind.

There's a trend toward "paid + ads". It may soon become the norm to pay premium plans only to get rid of ads, in the OS, on your phone (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/27/windows_phone_7_ads/).

Towle_3• 16 years ago

This just plain isn't good enough. Nobody is going to look at Netflix ($9/month) and Hulu Plus and pick the latter. They're being way too stingy with content. Give it all up, or go home.

coderdude3• 16 years ago

I'd say you're wrong. I have a couple co-workers that watch a lot of TV and they're very excited about this offering (minus the ads, which is ridiculous for a service you're paying for). I think more people will buy into this than you believe.

The co-workers in question are female non-techs, so perhaps it is a demographic thing.

WiseWeasel3• 16 years ago

You pay for cable/satellite TV, ads and everything. Personally, the streaming internet TV thing won't be really interesting until it's standardized on open formats and APIs, and I can use 3rd party browsing, playback and DVR software with it.

Towle_3• 16 years ago

I don't think your co-workers realize just how fast they're going to run out of things to watch. The thinking is likely, "Whole seasons will be like 5x better than just 5 trailing episodes!" But the thing is, you were already getting the whole season before, just not all at once. It's the exact same amount of content, not 5x more. The only difference now is that you can burn through it all as fast as you want. Unless Hulu has multiple all-time favorite shows of yours with huge replay value, this won't be worth it.

megaman821• 16 years ago

You must not consume much legal media if you think paying money entitles you to no ads.

* $10 movie ticket - I see ads before the movie

* $70/month cable - I see ads on every channel but PBS

* $50 sport ticket - I see ads all over the field

* $60 Pay Per View - I see ads all over the place and the announcers spewing ads whenever they can

jpdbaugh5• 16 years ago

People pay close to a hundred dollars a month for similar and non a-la-carte amounts of content that has about twice as many adds. Its called cable. Does $10 a month really seem like that much money to you for something like this? I don't watch TV so i am interested, however I just get frustrated with the trend of people refusing pay for anything tech related such as apps or even services like Pandora. Seriously, my non tech friends refuse to drop a couple of dollars on iPhone apps that they will use all of the time yet they don't hesitate to buy soft drinks when they eat out or add bacon to their burgers for the same price...

Sorry, I don't mean to single you out. This is definitely more generally directed.

Towle_3• 16 years ago

When consumers make the decision to purchase Hulu Plus, they won't be thinking about it in comparison to cable. They'll be comparing it to free Hulu, at it will lose.

Sidenote: Cable comes on a TV; Hulu comes on a computer. Does this matter to you personally? Likely not, you're a tech person and would have no issue working around that to get your preferred service on your preferred platform. But most people aren't you, and for them, that difference is called a barrier to consumption. This is the same reason IE remains the majority internet browser. It's the easiest thing in the world to just download another, better browser. But some 60% of the US refuses to. Well, they don't refuse to. They just don't think about it.

paul92902• 16 years ago

Im thinking regarding apps it will take time for your friends to come around and start buying them. Android and iPhone are still very early in their product life cycles and thus is the concept of buying apps.

baddox• 16 years ago

People pay for cable not so they can watch specific shows, but because they have adapted to always have the TV on no matter what. People use TV as their ambiance—an empty room with the TV blaring is considered "silent." Perhaps Hulu has a random play function, but I think people who pay for cable do so because it's a very important and indispensable part of their lives. If you've ever told anyone that you don't pay for or watch broadcast television at all, you've probably seen their surprise or disbelief.

samratjp• 16 years ago

Direct link to Hulu's Blog Post: http://www.hulu.com/plus

commieneko• 16 years ago

Subscription? Ads? heh...

modeless• 16 years ago

Meh. There's no reason the using the iPhone/iPad app should cost money. The subscription should get you back seasons, not just back episodes from the current season. The media companies are afraid of losing their DVD revenues, but if they don't loosen up they may just end up driving more people to illegal sites.

tomjen3• 16 years ago

Too little, far too late.

I really don't know if the media companies know just how much they have already lost - at this point most of the under 30 crowd downloads without even the tiniest feeling that perhaps, just maybe, they shouldn't or the companies deserve payment for what they have created.

At this point their only hope is to make it more convenient than piracy, which is possible to do now but won't in a couple of years and then slowly ween people away from free content.

kmfrk• 16 years ago

As much as you spoilt yanks disapprove, we Europeans would crawl on broken glass and do terribly embarrassing things to get something like this. To add insult to injury, basically no channels transmit HD shows in my country.

On another note, all the people who interject "I don't watch/have a TV" in every bloody conversation would probably love this, regardless of how large a demographic they comprise. Are we assuming that Hulu will have to satisfy all types of consumers for it to be a good idea, or are you just chiming in with your own, perfectly reasonable, arguments? I just don't know how useful the "I won't get it, therefore it is a bad idea" is and how it reflects Hulu's strategy.

Hulu announces monthly subscription, support for iPhone/iPad, still ad supported

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