Hulu again said to test subscription service on Apple's iPad

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Forged to challenge the dominance of Apple's iTunes ecosystem, online TV streaming service Hulu will reportedly embrace the platform with an iPad app that may offer an all-you-can eat subscription service to challenge Apple's al a carte model.



The New York Times cites four people briefed on the matter as saying that they 'believe' Hulu may test a subscription approach to its catalog of streaming TV shows through the forthcoming app, which wasn't given a release date.



A joint venture of NBC Universal, the News Corporation and the Walt Disney Company, Hulu has seen its ad-supported, browser-based streaming service generate revenues of more than $100 million and triple monthly streams to 903 million over the past year.



But this success has caught the attention of many of Hulu's content suppliers who are now pressuring the company to increase their share of the revenues and open doors to better monetization techniques, such as a subscription service that asks consumers to pay a monthly fee to gain unlimited access to a broad assortment of shows.



Apple held similar aspirations in the lead-up to this weekend's iPad launch but was forced to table its own $30 per month subscription efforts due to opposition from its network partners.



The networks were reportedly weary of the strategy, fearing it could ultimately hurt their business and jeopardize "the tens of billions of dollars in subscription fees they are paid by cable and satellite companies for their traditional TV networks."



Rumors of Hulu's plans for the iPad have been brewing for months ever since the company was reported to be developing an Apple-friendly version of its website that would operate without the need for Adobe's Flash video format, which isn't supported on Apple's mobile devices.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 25
    Forget it. The best thing about Hulu is that it is free!
  • Reply 2 of 25
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jerseymac View Post


    Forget it. The best thing about Hulu is that it is free!



    I agree.

    But I do believe that a combiation of reasonably priced (Hulu subscription) and convenient (iPad) could go a long way.

    I'm not sure if $30 / month qualifies as reasonably priced to enough people--certainly not while Hulu on the desktop/laptop is still free.
  • Reply 3 of 25
    spotonspoton Posts: 645member
    Netflix for the iPad.



    $8 a month all you can stream, TV shows and movies.





    Steve Jobs would have a fit.



    Echoing Steve Ballmer anti-Google rant mode: "I'm going to kill Netflix"
  • Reply 4 of 25
    solsunsolsun Posts: 763member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpotOn View Post


    Netflix for the iPad.



    $8 a month all you can stream, TV shows and movies.





    Steve Jobs would have a fit.




    Not if it was helping to sell iPads he wouldn't..
  • Reply 5 of 25
    esummersesummers Posts: 953member
    Now I may have a reason to get the VGA adaptor...
  • Reply 6 of 25
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    The BEST thing about Hulu is the selection. Being free is second-best, and if the subscription cost is LOW I will accept it. (And it better not have ads too?unless the price is REALLY low.)



    Hulu is one reason I don?t have cable, so it?s already saving me $$. And content costs something to create, after all.
  • Reply 7 of 25
    postulantpostulant Posts: 1,272member
    Services will have to improve immensely if Hulu expects people to drop a wad of cash every month. I use Hulu on both my Macbook Pro and AppleTV, however, if they started charging tomorrow for their current iteration, I would uninstall Hulu immediately - with no hesitation.
  • Reply 8 of 25
    bushman4bushman4 Posts: 858member
    FREE IS THE KEY to the success of HULU. Let the sponsors pick up the tab, even though it would be worth a few bucks a month (say $5) for a subscription.
  • Reply 9 of 25
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    I have no statement on what I'd pay for Hulu because I have no idea what to expect from the service. Some of my concerns are the ads, as previously mentioned. Another is video quality. Another is temporary caching within the app so we can watch offline for x-timeframe.



    My biggest issue with Hulu as a paid service is the content itself. It can be hard to know what shows will be available when. Some are there the next day, others have to wait a week, weeks or months, and rarely does the entire series appear to be available at any one time. While Netflix isn't as up to date with content they do offer more complete content for TV show series watching in order. With Hulu, the available content doesn't follow any discernible pattern.



    Finally, there is the issue with shows that look like they are on Hulu but make you jump to the show's parent site for viewing. Comedy Central just made this switch last month for Daily Show and Colbert, and likely others.
  • Reply 10 of 25
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I have no statement on what I'd pay for Hulu because I have no idea what to expect from the service. Some of my concerns are the ads, as previously mentioned. Another is video quality. Another is temporary caching within the app so we can watch offline for x-timeframe.



    My biggest issue with Hulu as a paid service is the content itself. It can be hard to know what shows will be available when. Some are there the next day, others have to wait a week, weeks or months, and rarely does the entire series appear to be available at any one time. While Netflix isn't as up to date with content they do offer more complete content for TV show series watching in order. With Hulu the pattern for available content doesn't follow any discernible patterns.



    Finally, there is the issue with shows that look like they are on Hulu but make you jump to the show's parent site for viewing. Comedy Central just made this switch last month for Daily Show and Colbert, and likely others.



    Yeah, this.



    I'd pay, but it would have to be a considerably better experience than currently. How much I'd pa would be entirely contingent on how much better.



    My understanding is that the brief window of availability, the erratic appearance and disappearance of some content, and other things like missing musical acts from SNL, are all because of the elaborate structure of licensing and who gets paid what when and for how long. Don't know if a subscription format would have any bearing on this.



    I will say this: between Hulu and Netlix streaming, we surely have the most thorough access to the largest library of genuinely terrible movies the world has ever seen.
  • Reply 11 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jerseymac View Post


    Forget it. The best thing about Hulu is that it is free!



    I second that but I wouldn't mind paying for the service if I had the option of HD video (720p).
  • Reply 12 of 25
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,616member
    It is April fools day you know !!
  • Reply 13 of 25
    kolchakkolchak Posts: 1,398member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    The networks were reportedly weary of the strategy,



    Weary or wary? There's a big difference.
  • Reply 14 of 25
    doroteadorotea Posts: 323member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by irnchriz View Post


    It is April fools day you know !!



    Good point
  • Reply 15 of 25
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jerseymac View Post


    Forget it. The best thing about Hulu is that it is free!



    lol, not for long
  • Reply 16 of 25
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member
    In case you didnt know Netflix app for the ipad has been approved by Apple. :-)



    They also approved Kindle app so I really like how this is playing out. Apple is letting itunes competition get into it. Ipad here I come!
  • Reply 17 of 25
    chronsterchronster Posts: 1,894member
    So it's not Hulu or Apple, but it's the networks that are saying "Squeeze more money out of this" ??



    Leave it up to these bigwig morons to ruin something like Hulu, and for taking CAVEMEN OFF THE AIR. That show had potential damnit! Also how did Dinosaurs only have 4 seasons? Jeesh. I should be the head of a network like ABC. Lost would have ended 2 seasons ago, and I'd put my foot down on lawyer or doctor shows!



    But back on topic, what makes Hulu great is that it's free, and I don't mind watching a 2 minute long commercial prior to whatever show I'm watching if it means the rest is commercial free. Heck, I don't even mind the single 30 second commercial breaks. Is the ad revenue seriously not enough? They're going to bastardize Hulu in order to make more money?
  • Reply 18 of 25
    mknoppmknopp Posts: 257member
    They are going to have to drastically increase the quality of their service if they are going to charge. I have actually decreased my usage of Hulu lately because it stutters all of the time. While I can go to the network's site and watch the same video with no stuttering at all, and I have never had that problem with my streaming Netflix subscription.



    I have contacted Hulu about this and was informed by a technician that the problem is that the content providers will not let them cache a sufficient amount of video for fear of piracy. Which also explains why it only occurs on certain shows. Well, that is just typical media idiocy, so afraid of piracy that they drive off their paying customers by degrading the service.



    Which just tells me that if they do try to charge it will be outlandishly high priced (I am guessing $20-30 a month) they will still leave in the commercials (hey more money for them) and the quality won't improve in the least (those damn pirates are still out there just waiting to steal their shows). So, take all of this together and I project an epic failure which they will blame on P2P users and pirates, because everyone knows that the media high ups can't do anything wrong.
  • Reply 19 of 25
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    Apple doesn't make money from selling media, they make money from selling Mac's, iPhone's, iPod's, and iPad's. They don't care where the content comes from.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpotOn View Post


    Steve Jobs would have a fit.



    Echoing Steve Ballmer anti-Google rant mode: "I'm going to kill Netflix"



  • Reply 20 of 25
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    If a Netflix app really appears on Sat, my interest in Hulu really just went waayy down.
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