Hulu Plus preview arrives in iTunes App Store, Flash be damned
By Thomas Ricker 
posted June 30th 2010 1:43AM
posted June 30th 2010 1:43AM
[Thanks, MT H.]
posted June 30th 2010 1:43AM
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"$10 per month subscription on top of the commercials you're forced to watch" No thanks, sticking with Netflix. Sorry, Hulu, I'm not gonna pay $10/m and still get commercials.
Why ain't there no uk equivalent to hulu netflix or abc we were the ones that invented tv and Internet :(
I thought the real reason for Hulu to introduce paid accounts would be to allow international audience to use it. I guess I was wrong.
They want to charge $10 a month for the privilege of watching commercials - that count towards our data caps?
Wow... there's a lot of ignorant comments on here. Let's review the Hulu Plus service, shall we?
1) Plus is coming to a boatload of devices, including Samsung devices, the Xbox, and the PS3. This app is for iOS, but the Plus service is not exclusive to iOS.
2) The $10/month is supposedly for access to more video than you get in your web browser currently. They will have to clearly prove themselves there.
3) Again, the $10/month is not to watch the free service on an iOS device.
4) If you (or your parents) pay for cable or satellite, you're already paying for a service that also delivers commercials to your eyeballs.
@galfridus73 And Hulu is not Cable. The the reason the service is free is because of commercials and ads. If the ads came first (which they did in this case), then the subscription service is supposed to replace those as an alternative revenue model.
@ZackC456 Supposed to? Uh, I don't recall some specific rule out there in the business world that specifies anything like you're describing.
If you mean to say that your expectation is that if Hulu began using ads for a free service, then they should remove such ads when they decide to charge for that service? Okay, that could be your expectation and apparently you're not alone. However, Hulu isn't "supposed to" do anything other than make decisions based on their remaining profitable and within the licensing restrictions applied to them from the content providers, like making the ad-supported "free" content available only on PCs (not handsets), and stuff like that.
If adding available content and making that content available on a large number of additional platforms (this isn't an iPhone thing - Hulu Plus will be available on PS3s, XBOX 360s, Samsung televisions and blu-ray players, etc) means they need to charge money for it (and maintain inserting ads), then that's their decision.
When XM and Sirius first started their business model, like Cable, their big selling point was "no commercials." Yeah, listen to XM or Sirius now... and yes, people pay a lot o' money for those subscriptions (and hardware), too.
Just sayin'.
So blocked Android... to charge. Only other device that uses Flash and don't make an app for it either.
am I the only one seeing anything wrong with this.
Oh well. There are plenty of others for free to use so no biggie for me.
@EggoEspada
Don't tell anyone, but with FroYo you can watch Hulu in the browser ;)
Ten bucks a month? Suckers.
With AT&T's 2GB cap you'll be able to watch about 5 hours of 720p video before you've hit your limit for the month.
No closed captions = Fail!
I still don't understand the whole "you can only play this on a desktop PC" stuff that Hulu does. What difference does the platform make? What is the difference between watching the exact same content on a tiny netbook or an ipad, both are mobile, both are 7-10 inch screens... both would show the same ads which bring in the same revenue. The only difference is one has a keyboard and opens up?
To say it's ok that you watch this full screen on your PC, but not on your tiny phone screen, even though you'd see the same ads... I know it's probably not Hulu's decision, but the studios... I just don't understand their thinking, why they license it to be viewed on one device but not another... there is no logic there...
As usual 95% of posts coming from people who don't own an iphone or an ipad or will never own either.
As usual the same service would be 'great' if it were on Android. But because it is ONLY on iOS it must naturally be bad.
It's business as usual around here :)
@jaffreywali
We own both and have no intention of paying a monthly fee for this nonsense. The person who actually owns the iPad in this house would never stand for it. The minute the first commercial was seen, it would be all over. No more Hulu.
Something like this would have gone over better if a lot of people weren't already used to having Tivos and similar devices for 10+ years already.
One thing about iPad owners at least.... People that genuinely have $500 to casually blow on some shiny toy aren't going to be terribly impressed by the prospect of replacing their cable for cheap.
@jaffreywali Bingo.
@jedi Unfortunately, commercials are a large portion of how the content we enjoy is funded.
I don't know how Hulu do it, but the interstitial advertising in the ABC Player and on the myriad TV channel web sites was actually well handled - adverts were fewer and less frequent, and generally higher quality than a lot of the tat you see watching via cable.
@hated one I actually like watching Netflix movies on my 52 inch TV. Quality is good. Not blue ray, but as good as a DVD. As long as my kids arnt using up all the Bandwidth. Then the picture is crappy. Video on phones is just bad.
@hated one Well, I hate to burst your bubble but, as a member of the media/content providing industry, I'm regularly inundated by the plethora of research that confirms most media-consuming people are more interested in "quality" content (radio, tv, etc) and convenience/access to that content than the supposed audio or video quality. Yeah, there are some kickin' systems out there, but for most people, the preference leans considerably to convenient access to the "quality" content they want to see and hear, even if quality of audio or video suffers a bit.
I'm sure there's research to the contrary, but overall, content is king, no matter how big the TV or sweet the surround sound system is in one's living room.
Let your wallets do the talking here. If people don't pay the $10, they will change the business model. Simple Business 101.
BUT FLASH IS THE ONLY THING THAT MAKES A PHONE GOOD HUUURRRRRRRR
- Idiot Android fanboys
Well, ReplayTV my long time friend, time to go! I will miss the cool DVR to DVR internet sharing and the awesome auto commercial advance (which is why I held on so long, especially when used with a sling box) but for the same amount of shekels I can time shift whole seasons both at home and on the mobile (and in HD to boot). Gonna miss ya, but its time! Love ya, and so long old friend ;^(...
I have no problem with the monthly fee, or commercials, but at least on the Hulu plus app, a majority of the shows I watch are not even in the list. It would be worth 10 bucks a month for me to watch at work on my phone. But unless there is more of the shows I watch, which most are in syndication on tv, I just cant do it.
@pupuslinger
And this is exactly why nothing gets done in america anymore, and other countries are passing us up tech-wise.
Hulu is a joke now....
Hate to tell ya I told you so...