back to article Hulu to charge $10 for past-its-prime time TV

Online TV site Hulu will begin a $9.95 per month subscription service come May 24, according to the Los Angeles Times. No, the subcription service won't be for all Hulu content - the most recent five episodes of popular TV shows will remain free. The Times cites Fox's Glee, ABC's Lost, and NBC's Saturday Night Live as examples …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Efros
    Thumb Down

    Used it a couple of times

    That was when it was free, $9.95 a month they can shove it, I'd rather join Netflix, at least they have no adverts.

  2. ZenCoder
    FAIL

    I'll watch ad's, I'll pay, but I won't do both.

    If the premium content isn't ad free I am simply not interested, and I'd wouldn't be surprised if a lot of other people felt the same way.

    Actually I'd rather wait and rent the episodes on DVD and watch then commercial free. Also I can get commercial free on demand content from netflix.

    People have limited entertainment budgets and these media companies need to realize that they way to make more money is give their customers more value for their money, not trying to get them to pay for the same content 2 or 3 times.

    You know what would get me spending more money on TV? ... Charge me $x a show and then if I purchase the whole season I get the DVD for free. Maybe charge extra if I prefer it on Blue Ray.

    And when I subscribe to the show, let me watch it on my PC, or an XBox or an iPhone or whoever I chose all for the same price.

    Once they create the content, its practically free to distribute. So they don't need to get me to spent more per unit, instead they need to entice me to sent a greater percentage of my entertainment budget in their direction.

    1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects 1
      Flame

      You are talking about WalDisney and Rupert Murky?

      You think there was ever an interest in VFM with them?

      I can't wait for Google to get into TV channel delivery. Maybe that's what they are planning to server up next.

      Let's hope so, I don't have a life and if they do, I won't need one.

  3. bart

    The future is now . . .

    There’s nowhere to go but up in our “free” market economy. When every business expects no less than double digit growth every single year (to “survive,”) no matter what the economy, consumers ultimately suffer. To be merely sustainable is somehow equated with being a failure these days.

    But hey, why wring double digit profits out of a product when you can get away with triple digit profit, albeit completely at the expense of the consumers your business “serves.”

    I guess we’ll all look back on this as quaint from the year 2025, when the average monthly bill for “media services” will hover around three to five hundred dollars a month . . .

    1. gotes

      and..

      .. piracy will *still* be killing the industry

  4. Oliver 7

    I thought they were on to something here....

    ...but fuck 'em! This was about their best chance so far to get some revenue from file-sharers but licensing fights over UK rights and, ultimately, the greed of the owners seem to have derailed it. Good luck with that!

  5. Reading Your E-mail
    Terminator

    2011 board meeting will be a cracker

    "So gentlemen, last year we made 100 mil, this year we charged 'em so what did we make"

    "Erm....1000"

    "1000 mil!!! that's great I knew we were right"

    "Nooooo...1000 $, canadian btw"

    "We're screwed, let's give ourselves a pay raise!!"

  6. Arnie
    Coffee/keyboard

    greed rules OK?

    just keep charging the sheeple. Our products so good we're gonna charge not once, twice but thrice or more.

    Disney FTW

  7. RayG
    Happy

    I don't understand

    Now hang on a moment Bart - why on earth would you want to watch any of that stuff in the first place, even free? So why would you have a "media services" bill at all?

    Count me among the completely unaffected.

  8. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    I have a lot of time for Krod Mandoon.

    I suppose if it isn't THE I.T. CROWD then you're not interested.

    Well, my answer to that... the other night I watched Jon Stewart doing a chicken dance with a gospel choir all singing "Go Fuck Yourselves" to Fox "Fair And Balanced" News (and I have tinnitus from the bleep machine). Register, you can Go Fair and Balanced.

  9. Doug Deeds
    FAIL

    End of Hulu for me

    I have a 5 year old and rarely get to watch any normal TV. Hulu is where I can watch the shows I want at odd hours. But if they go pay, then that's the end of it for me. I am quite happy watching commercials. Damn greedy networks!!!

  10. Tim 48

    If Hulu were to offer premium cable content....

    it might be worth paying for. Current I use Hulu for the stuff that is normally broadcast free over the air (Chuck, Heroes, The Simpsons). I also have Netflix for the stuff that one usually has to pay premium cable prices to see (true I don't get the current season but I'm quite content to watch back episodes of Dexter and Doctor Who since I've never seen them before). Can't see paying for a Hulu subscription if I'm just going to get access to more episodes of stuff i could get over the airwaves.....

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rocket J Squirrel

    I watched all of the Rocky & Bullwinkle, and all of the Pink Panther cartoons, and I did not mind sitting through the 3-4 commercials that they inlined with the video. My problem was that after watching one Prius commercial, did I really need to see the same commercial 3 more times during the same 27 minute video????? NO, I didn't. I go where it's free. I haven't paid to see a movie in a theatre since HGTTG was released, and I didn't spend any money on concessions either.

  12. Malcom Ryder 1

    Goodbye Hulu

    Hulu made sense, actually it is one of the few internet services that does(did?). How does you tube make money? How does Facebook? Hulu played videos with commercials, they made money, and I didn't have to DVR( and then skip thru the commercials). I am not going to pay for stuff I can watch for free. Hulu now has a business model as dumb as the rest of the internet crowd.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like