For people too broke to pay for internet and cable, too technologically inept to download torrent files and too lazy to sit through commercials, the discovery of Hulu was equivalent to a child’s discovery of a trampoline: marvelous!
Hulu provides free online streaming of full-length TV shows. With a little over two minutes of commercials per half hour show and unlimited availability for replay.
NBC, The Walt Disney Company, News Corp., Providence Equity Partners and the Hulu team share ownership stake of the company, and display many of the world’s most popular shows.
Since its start in 2007, patrons to the site have had to live with constant murmurs claiming that Hulu was going to start charging for an account. In early July, these fears took form with the creation of Hulu Plus, with a price tag of $9.99 a month.
Hulu Plus promises additional content over Hulu, including over 120 seasons and 2,000 episodes of popular current and classic television.
It offers HD video up to 720p. It’s also incredibly simple to stream video to an iPhone 4, iPad, Xbox 360, or some internet-enabled TVs.
“I don’t see this as a substitute for cable or satellite service,”CEO Jason Kilar said during an interview with MediaMemo.”It’s not a product that can serve that need.”
The company remains steadfast that the subscription is specifically low-priced for that very reason.
Hulu Plus seems more comparable to an expansive DVD collection than a cable or satellite system. It offers no sports, news or premium channel content from Showtime, HBO, etc.
This is all fine and good; they are just providing cable TV shows for a small fee. The website is very honest about what services they are providing for your $9.99 a month; unfortunately, Netflix already provides this service, only with more content, no commercials and a cheaper price.
This venture seems like nothing but trouble for the future of Hulu.
While they claim that Hulu Plus doesn’t interfere with the original site, there is already a noticeable difference. Six months ago, the majority of shows would appear on Hulu the morning after their airdate. Now, almost all shows have a week-long retention period before they get put online, making it impossible to stay current with a series without the Plus package.
Surprisingly, having Hulu Plus doesn’t eliminate or even lessen the commercial time per episode. This may come across as picking straws, but they should at least inform the consumer about this before they subscribe.
There are definitely some perks to Hulu Plus, but a lot of the end product used to be available for free. They continuously take programs from the site’s free content, slap a bow on them, and sell them back with a new name.
Kilar describes the current Hulu Plus as “just step one,” which is good to hear because the step is already creaking. Hopefully, they can make improvements that don’t subtract from the free Hulu. In the meantime, stick with Netflix.