Free Ride Almost Over? Hulu Plus Launches Subscription Service

by Wayne Friedman , June 29, 2010

hulu plus

Pressed to start making real money, Hulu -- the big premium TV program Web site -- is finally launching its subscription fee service, called Hulu Plus. But advertising still remains a key piece of its financial puzzle.

Hulu senior executives maintain that the service, which will be offered at $9.95 a month, is not a replacement for the free, advertising-supported Hulu service.

In fact, Hulu Plus will also include advertising. Jason Kilar, chief executive officer of Hulu, said in his blog that the move will "allow us to keep our Hulu Plus price low." He added: "We offer one of the world's most effective advertising platforms, with the ability to speak effectively to users across a variety of devices, anywhere they happen to be."

The difference with Hulu Plus is that for a fee, users can pull up a deeper array of episodes from TV shows on or off the air and several years in the past. As a Hulu Plus subscriber, for example, a user can get all nine seasons of "The X-Files," or all three seasons of "Arrested Development," or all seven seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

The free part of Hulu will continue to provide TV shows -- but only the most recent episodes.

Executives of Hulu's three partners -- Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal and News Corp. -- have been hinting that Hulu would adopt some sort of subscription business over the past year. Hulu has been pulling in some $100 million in advertising revenue a year, according to executives, but has yet to be profitable.

Hulu Plus subscribers who own a Samsung Internet-connected TV set or Blu-ray players can download a Hulu Plus application from the Samsung app store and start streaming Hulu Plus directly. Owners of iPads and iPhones will be able to do the same thing.

Hulu's Jason Kilar says Hulu Plus will allow users to move more freely from device to device, room to room.

"You can start watching a show on your HDTV one night, pick up where you left off on your laptop at lunch, watch another chunk on the bus ride home on your iPhone, and finish watching in bed on your iPad."

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3 comments about "Free Ride Almost Over? Hulu Plus Launches Subscription Service".

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Jonathan Mirow from BroadbandVideo, Inc., June 30, 2010 at 11:05 a.m.
Typo in headline. It should read "Hulu almost over."
Reply

Frank Caruso from RobnCaruso Sales Associates, June 30, 2010 at 2 p.m.

I knew the minute Comcast and NBC Universal were going to merge that this day will come. Comcast is going to charge you for anything that will come into your house. They had done it so well in the cable industry. You get a taste and then your hooked!
Don't even get started, don't we pay enough just to watch T.V.
I believe TIVO has a new system due out soon enough that would ease that on demand need.

Chris Scaiano from montana datacom, June 30, 2010 at 5:15 p.m.

i hope this is the beginning of the end for cable tv. i have been cable tv free for months now and there are only a handful of shows that i can't find online. i have no problem paying for what i like to watch but i refuse to pay for C-SPAN, HOME SHOPPING NETWORK, TELEMUNDO and 100's of other useless stations that cable companies throw down our throats. $10.00 a month for website access to sites like hulu plus is more than fair. eventually i know the cable tv companies will find some way to charge me extra for my internet tv content. until that happens, i am more than happy to save the $120.00 a month that cable was charging me. go out and get a mac mini, connect it to your tv/stereo system and drop cable. the cost of the mac mini is about 6-8 months of cable bills. unlike the cable equipment you rent every month, the mac mini is yours to keep forever. i don't work for apple, i'm just a mac kind of guy. i'm sure you can do the same thing with a pc (apple is just better!!!). the other bonus that comes with ditching cable is the new and improved quality time i spend with my wife. trust me, watching tv with your spouse is not quality family time. no matter how good the programming is!!! think outside the cable box!!!