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Hulu has announced a new premium service that will deliver entire seasons of network TV shows at 720p high definition resolution for $9.99 per month (plus applicable taxes).
The concept of Hulu Plus has been around for months now, as Hulu’s owners (Disney, NBC Universal, News Corp and Providence Equity Partners) contemplate the increasing cost of delivering video to millions of Americans during an advertising industry crisis. Advertising revenue no longer covers the costs, so Hulu hopes paying subscribers will.
The free version of Hulu isn’t going anywhere — in fact the service has just signed agreements with CBS and Viacom to bring shows that formerly were seen on Joost over to Hulu. Time Warner (the entertainment company, not the cable operator) is also bringing some of its shows to Hulu.
But free viewers will continue to find access to the latest shows limited, typically to the last four to five episodes. If you want to catch up on an entire season, you’ll need to pony up ten bucks.
The prospect of watching nearly every network show from ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC over your home computer, television or other devices including the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Blu-Ray players from Samsung, Sony, and Vizio would give you more than 3,000 viewing options to choose from. But before getting too excited, there are some downsides to Hulu Plus:
- You’re still going to watch commercials. Just like basic cable, you are going to pay to watch commercials on Hulu Plus. That will be a deal-breaker for many who believe if you pay a monthly fee for it, you shouldn’t have to watch advertising. Netflix offers online viewing as part of its $9.99 monthly service and there is no advertising.
- You still have to wait to watch shows. There is no live streaming of network shows. You’ll have to wait until the next day like everyone else on Hulu to catch the latest episode.
- Don’t you dare watch on your smartphone. With Internet Overcharging schemes in place at AT&T and presumably on the way at Verizon, nothing eats your allowance faster than online video. Paying $10 a month for Hulu Plus will be dirt cheap compared to the overlimit fees you’ll pay if you exceed your usage allowance.
The cable industry still thinks it could have a better product in the end. TV Everywhere’s variations from Comcast and other cable operators are provided free of charge to existing cable subscribers (although the advertising load may end up being greater). Many cable network shows are better received than some of the swill served up by the networks, and cable could be free to provide season passes right from the outset.
An introduction to Hulu Plus. (2 minutes)
Other stories of interest:
- Comcast-NBC Deal: Hulu’s Free Online Video Days Could Be Numbered
- TV-Sized Ad Loads Coming to Online Video? – With Overcharging Schemes, You’ll Pay More to Watch Them
- Trivial Pursuit… For Now: The ‘Hulu Beats Time Warner Cable’ Story Explained
- AT&T U-verse Relaunches Video Site Filled With Shows You Can Already See Elsewhere Online
- Frontier Communications Launches Online Video Site With 100,000 Videos You Can Already See Elsewhere Online
Why not just have a line of text above the embedded video announcing which company is sponsoring the video?
This might very well end up growing to include more networks. Hulu might be able to do something the cable networks have always refused – provide a la carte pricing outside the basic ($9.99) tier. Plus, while it’s true you can’t watch shows live on Hulu, you can watch them the next day without owning a DVR or setting up the recording in advance. You do have to watch commercials, but they’re much shorter than those on cable. It will be much more difficult to build software or devices that can skip hulu commercials. Networks may find their revenue per viewer higher on Hulu.
If nothing else, this provides some competition against cable TV operators which are typically monopolies. Right now, if I want anything other than basic broadcast, I can only go through Time Warner Cable as satellite isn’t an option in my apartment.
This could end up cutting a lot of fat from the current TV system. Hulu is owned by Fox, ABC and NBC, it effectively bypasses both cable operators and local broadcasters and allows the networks to sell their product directly to consumers.
Plus, Hulu now represents a significant entity that has a vested interest in unlimited, fast broadband. The major networks own Hulu, they’ll probably object to cable operators trying to kill it.
I agree with everything Andrew Madigan said. Sure, it’s $10 per month and includes ads, but that’s the price of a basic cable package, and if this thing really takes off then the cable nets will add more of their portfolios, more networks will join in, watching conditions (e.g. the end-of-day limit) will be removed and generally things will get better. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see companies like Sonic.net advertising their ISP services on Hulu…
That would be good, however I would not expect to see that for some time:
There is an interview with the CEO of Hulu explaining that it is a broadcast tv outlet only. Their owners have an interest in keeping cable the way it is and they will not change it. They (at this point) do not want cable shows on Hulu.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20009279-93.html
Check out the answers to the questions about why there is no cable tv networks and if it could be an alternative to cable.
The CEO basically says that they do not want the current system to hurt cable.
Seems pretty pointless to me, caps on my broadband and no competition to my cable provider don’t allow any choice or ability to use streaming services.
Even if had unlimited cable internet, the Hulu service is pretty pointless if they’re not going to have full access to ALL the broadcast shows, without the 1-day delays, without randomly pulling shows at the whim of the networks, and obviously without providing ala carte cable programming for an additional fee.
Hulu PLus=fail fail fail
Something that is aired free OTA and they want to charge you $10/month, ok. I would rather get a Netflix account and not have to watch commercials for the same service if not more.
I can’t wait till November when the Boxee Box hits the stores. It will bye bye cable for good!! I have been waiting for something exactly like that to finally cut the cord for good.