Hulu Plus launches at $7.99, refunds early adopters
After much waiting and speculation, Hulu Plus was released for the iPad and iPhone on a preview basis in June. Today, Hulu has opened the service up to everyone and dropped the monthly fee to US$7.99 from $9.99. Additionally, those who have been paying $9.99 will see a rebate on their next bill.
Hulu Plus on the iPad and iPhone (here's our review) streams TV shows, movies and documentaries to the devices over Wi-Fi and 3G. It's smart enough to pick up where you left off, should you get interrupted, on either device. While the movie selection is rather limited (most were new to me), the television library is great, offering both classic and contemporary shows, many in their full runs.
It will be interesting to see if the price drop attracts additional "cord-cutters" who are looking to escape costly cable bills and adopt services like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand. As Read Write Web points out, the proliferation of cord-cutters is really a myth. A recent Nielsen study found that the majority of Internet TV viewers (84%) say that they are still watching the same amount of traditional TV as before and do not intend to cancel their current cable subscriptions.
In addition to this announcement, Hulu has stated that updates to its iOS apps are forthcoming, and that they've formed a new partnership with Roku.
[Via Read Write Web]
