A few months ago we briefly covered the rumors going around about Hulu’s new premium service. Yesterday Hulu announced the official details and started the preview invitations. As an avid Hulu viewer, I’m pumped about the new optional service. Here is what you can expect.
What is Hulu Plus?
While Hulu Plus might sound like a bold new business strategy, it’s just an add-on to the existing Hulu service. This add-on means that the Hulu as you know it isn’t going anywhere <phew>, at least that’s what Hulu has promised. The optional add-on feature service will cost you $9.99 per month for several new features not available through the Ad-Supported free Hulu service we all know today.
Hulu Plus Features
Hulu Plus is designed to bring Hulu to a broad range of devices, starting with the iPhone, iPad, Television, and more. On top of the mutli-device support, Hulu Plus will unlock more shows and more episodes of all shows on Hulu. Ads aren’t going away. Yup, it’s sad news, but you’ll still be required to watch the SAME ads that free viewers watch, even if you’re a paid subscriber. Here’s the full list of features:
- Hulu Plus App for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch streaming
- Upcoming TV and Android support (Samsung Internet TV’s and Blu-Ray players have an app)
- Console support, Playstation 3 in a couple of months; Xbox 360 in 2011.
- Stream shows over 3G or WiFi (Hope you have an unlimited Data Plan for that iPad!)
- Watch every episode of every current season show
- Watch entire past seasons of all shows on Hulu
- Additional older shows available for viewing
- Enjoy the same full-length ads as people who don’t pay $10 a month (err, yeah.)
Conclusion
Hulu Plus will be a nice add-on for people who want to watch old episodes of their favorite shows. The mobile device and upcoming TV support look promising, but I don’t get why that should be considered a “Premium” feature. Other Applications like TVersity and PlayOn already exist that let you stream Hulu to any device from your PC.
Over the past few months, there has been a noticeable increase in the length of the ads shown on Hulu. So much so that people are complaining in the comments of nearly every show. If Hulu wants to lure me into paying $10 they’ll need to get rid of the ads altogether for Plus customers, or at least reduce them to only the opening and closing ads as HBO and other premium channels do.
Do you watch TV on HULU? Would love to hear your thoughts on the new PLUS service and $10 fee.
4 Comments
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BrickMonkey
Totally agree about the ads. I would be willing to put up with a very limited amount for the $10 premium but not what hey are now. I might even consider a “premium plus” service option for a few bucks more to get rid of the ads. This will be a no go for me until they fix this. Bummer…
Cris
Everyone has been complaining about paying $10 and still having ads, but newsflash! this service isn’t for you. It’s for me. Regular Hulu will continue to exist. As for me, I don’t have cable internet or TV, just 3G for my computer with 5G of transferable data (which is fine for surfing, but runs out after 2 movies or so and then costs a fortune per bit). But I do have an iPad with unlimited 3G. Right now I pay $1.99 to buy shows on iTunes, download them (at work over the cable internet) and transfer them to my home computer to watch. Now for $10 a month I can watch TV on my iPad over a 3G network. To me it’s worth it. Maybe I’m not the primary target demographic, but I am certainly going to be an end user – commercials and all.
MrGroove
EXACTLY. I said it once already – The ipad is a game changer.
I have to agree with you on that for sure. With my new iPad and unlimited 3G my life has changed 100% regarding how I surf the web, look at pictures, make phone calls and watch TV.
What about Netflix tho? Are you a netflix user at all vs. the $1.99 iTunes downloads?
Lucas
ah AT&T will cap it, no more “unlimited” data plan….then the “Game Changer” will become
a game charger, you’ll pay to play…it’s coming.