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Subscription-Based 'Hulu Plus' Is Now Official
itwbennett writes "After months of rumors, Hulu officially announced its $9.99/month Hulu Plus service. Invites will soon start rolling out in weekly batches. So what will you get for that $9.99? 'Full access to a bunch of current shows (Hulu lists 40 but adds 'and more' to that list) as well as complete series collections of some older titles such as The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the wonderful and mostly-ignored Eli Stone,' writes blogger Peter Smith. 'HD content sources will be streamed at 720P but Hulu mentions that the service is ad-supported.'"
So not only will I be paying $9.99 but I'll also be watching ads? Hmm... no.
So you pay 9.99, and then still have ads on top of it? Absurd.
Was nice knowing you.
Sounds like Hulu is doing good advertising for NetFlix to me.
You mean to tell me you have to wait for an invitation to a paid for product that's ad-supported? What are they thinking?
Their collection of shows do not seem that impressive either. Where's Weeds/Big Love/True Blood, or whatever people are watching nowadays?
I have a hard time believing that this is going to go anywhere. My $10 a month stays with Netflix, color me unimpressed.
If you can't mod them join them.
Charge for it, put ads in it, charge a low price and put ads in it, but for crying out loud make Hulu available in Canada.
netflix is $8.99, is ad-free, has more content, has many client platforms (PC, mobile, wii, playstation, roku, etc), and includes DVD rentals by mail.
what are they thinking?
So lets see I still get A) Ads B) Stupid blocking so I can't watch it on different devices and C) I'd have to wait for an invite?
Count me out.
To all "media" executives take a few things in note, I can go to the pirate bay and get shows ad free that I can watch everywhere without stupid little geographic or device limitations. Oh and its free.
Look, we have no problems buying your crap, but when its easier to pirate it and you get a better product? Why not download it?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Now, if for the $10 there are no commercials, and there is not silly wait time, and the full season is available, then that might be an incentive. But then Hulu Plus is going to have ads, will likely have the same time delay as now, and will likely limit the number of shows, so I wonder what the $10 buys? The ability to watch shows on the iPad? I suspect that once again these people have missed a grand opportunity to stop unlicensed file sharing. I think for $10 many people would give up downloading files they could get for free anyway with a DVR. It is incomprehensible why the broadcasters would not take advantage of such an opportunity.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
You're paying for access to a larger library.
No pay you get ads and access to only certain shows and only the last handful of episodes (can't remember the actual number 4? 5?)
Pay and you still get ads but you get access to the entire Hulu library.
I personally would consider it IF they released shows as soon as they're available and had everything I was looking for. I already pay for satellite to the tune of $80 per month. This would be far cheaper.
And the reality is, if you want television content to be completely ad-free (ie, viewer payments finance every part of the show), then you'd be paying a HELL of a lot more than $10 per month.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
It looks like what you get for 9.99 is access outside the browser. They mention Samsung tvs, and ipad/iphone.
no android love yet though.
Slackware: old school feel, new school gear.
Hulu isn't entitled to my money!
If you think it's great, then by all means pay for it, but don't act surprised when not everyone thinks exactly like you do..
If Hulu could actually replace cable you might have a point. It can't.
But Hulu and Netflix get pretty damn close. And that's what, $20/month total for both plans?
the question is then, can I? if my billing address is still in the USA, will it work, or will it block me due to the fact that i'll be connecting through a foreign ISP?
I didn't see anything on the initial post on hulu about that...
My understanding is that they control access via IP and not billing address. I've ran into several issues when I was 'overseas' in Canada for work.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
I'm keeping with BitTorrent. It's fast, free, without ads, and has every conceivable show or film in a format displayable on every device/platform.
So when I blow hulu up to a 55" LCD with a DVI cable and gaming computer, it stutters like claymation. Doesn't buffer, etc, it's just not a smooth playback whatever the resolution. YouTube has no such problems even when watching 720p video.
Will that $9.99 give me decent performance?
Access to older episodes of certain shows is worth paying for, even if they have ads.
Last year, I bought the entire X-Files series on DVD. Cost me $250. I was done watching it in about 8 months. I may watch it again someday, but most likely not.
With Hulu+, I could have watched the whole damned thing for $80, had access to other shows to watch at the same time, and saved about $170. True, I would have had to put up with ads which the box set did not have, but that's something each person has to decide for themselves.
I think you'll find some people will gladly pay for access to older episodes, even if they still have to deal with the ads. I don't know if Hulu+ is worth it for me at the moment, but it certainly would have been last year.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Another bunch of greedmongers who don't get it. Look, you can either sell me out to the ad companies, or take my money to provide me with a service. You can not do both. Sooner or later, the interests of the parties involved will clash, and we know that it's seldom the customer who comes out on top.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org