Reuters: Hulu plans to expand to iPad, Xbox 360, offer subscription service

We've already heard rumors of Hulu coming to the iPad and Xbox 360, and rumors of a subscription service, and it looks like those might now all be coming together. According to Reuters, two sources and "another with knowledge of the matter" say that Hulu will be rolling out to "multiple devices" in the next month or two -- only the iPad and Xbox 360 are mentioned by name -- and that it will indeed be offering a subscription service. As we had heard, the subscription service would apparently only be for older episodes of TV shows and other content -- you'd still be able to watch new episodes of shows for free -- and it sounds like it will apply to Hulu as a whole, not just those aforementioned devices. Not many more details than that, unfortunately, but this does certainly seem to be taking on a feeling of inevitability.

[techtrader Posted Jun 10th 2010 9:56AM]

This is outstanding, can't wait for the release for 360....very intense.

[Griffin Posted Jun 10th 2010 4:53PM]

I already get plenty of video on my iPad without the need for paying for any subscription service, particularly one that simply duplicates the tv shows I can record and then watch through my slingbox. I'm happy to give a minute of my time here and there for an ad - in fact I think it's only fair that I sit through the ads so the content providers can pay their bills too, but there's no way in hell I'm going to pay for any subscription services. As long as HULU offers some free shows and the iPad app is free I'm in (provided it works over 3G). I figure since I was bait and switched by Apple/ATT into being stuck in an auto-renew on my unlimited $30 data plan in order to keep it, which is contrary to what we were told when we were marketed the iPad, and probably illegal (most likely due to receive some class action love soon), I might as well suck up all the data I can. I had planned on cancelling my 3G service for weeks at a time in between months of service, as it was marketed to us, but since we were all lied to and cheated out of that, I might as well get what I can out of it. Heck, if I didn't need to charge the battery, I'd run slingplayer while I was sleeping over 3G just to stick it to ATT for pulling a bait and switch on the data issue.
On the flip side, I wonder if we can start paying for the portion of our uverse services that we actually use, and wouldn't it be great if we could send in a check every month representing the percentage of programming that we actually watch vs what is available to us? As much as I like uverse service, it would offset the extra money I'm now forced to pay for unlimited data. I purchased my iPad based on the promise that the unlimited data plan could be purchased monthly and that I could wait in between months of 3G data service. It was implied specifically that this would last the life of my iPad, not 1 month into ownership.