• Smart Money, Sunday, May 16, 2010 11:17 PM

The latest TV threat could come from Hulu, the second-most-popular site for free online video. A reportedly planned change to the site's revenue model raises new questions about the outlook for television companies, says Smart Money. Today, Hulu offers a menu of free streaming TV episodes, movies and clips for free, but the site plans to start charging a monthly subscription fee of $9.95 to access its full archive of videos. The last few episodes of most shows would remain free.

 

Hulu also poses a danger to the networks because it could be changing audiences' expectations. Sites like Hulu are also "retraining the consumer that premium content is supposed to be free," says Laura Martin, a senior analyst covering entertainment, cable and media at Needham & Company.

Still, Hulu's backers are NBC, ABC, Fox, which explains why they want subscription fees to help pad the bottom line.  Perhaps they grew impatient waiting for the ad revenues to grow to acceptable levels -- as opposed to Google, which is patient in handling YouTube's move toward profitability. 

Ironic that Hulu, which rose to popularity because it was free would resort to a paid model, reports Reel SEO. And what would Hulu say to users that prefer paying $9.95 a month to Netflix and gain access to much more content than Hulu is able to offer?

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