Hulu To Start Charging 9.95 Subscription Service As Soon As May
The Los Angeles Times’ Company Town blog is reporting that online TV service Hulu will be offering Hulu Plus to customers for 9.95 month.
Under the proposal, Hulu would continue to provide for free the five most recent episodes of shows like Fox’s “Glee,” “ABC’s “Lost” or NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” But viewers who want to see additional episodes would pay $9.95 a month to access a more comprehensive selection, called Hulu Plus, these people said.
The “these people” in the quote above are identified as “people with knowledge of the plans.” You can read the LA Times piece here.
Rumors have indicated that the introduction of Hulu’s subscription service is going to coincide with the release their iPad app. Unfortunately, much to the chagrin of Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, ABC released their iPad app and is giving away content that’s available Hulu for free.
One of my favorite tech commentators, Peter Kafaka, has a good piece on Hulu’s 9.95 plan here.
Online television viewing is moving at a breakneck speed, which has the potential to offer PCN readers opportunities that were historically unavailable to independent filmmakers. If Hulu’s subscription model works, we’re going to see some new and interesting business models for viewing films online.
