Forum - View topicNEWS: Hulu Launches Subscription Streaming Service
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outlaw55
Posts: 52 |
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Only a matter of time until anime hits this and you won't be able to access anything but the "latest 5 episodes" of shows unless you pay...
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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Corrected for accuracy. Techdirt just posted a statement from Hulu's CEO stating "We're not competing against cable." Translation: "We're [bleeping] hosed, so we're going to rack up as best we can until then." Since when does competing involve being nice to the competition? |
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Sovay
 Posts: 22 |
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I'm having a hard time seeing this succeed. It just seems like a lot to pay to still have to watch commercials. Netflix has a comparable subscription fee but you still have the option to watch physical discs and commercial free streaming. I'll definitely be sticking to free hulu for catching episodes the day after they air but I'm sticking with my Netflix for older seasons and shows.
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mdo7
 Posts: 6390 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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I've heard about this from Hulu, and video game site like Joystiq and Kotaku. For Playstation 3 owners, this will be part of Playstation Plus. So if you want to watch anime on Hulu via PS3, might want to get the Playstation Plus while you can.
Xbox 360 owners are going to wait till next year for it to get Hulu Plus. I wonder what premium anime are they going to add exclusively for Hulu Plus? |
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GATSU
Posts: 15564 |
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Gonna be a losing battle against Netflix.
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goins007
Posts: 291 |
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Actually from what I've been reading the speculation is that the hulu fee will be on top of the Playstation Plus fee. As a PS3 owner (and 360) I hope it's not true. |
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Ranemoraken
Posts: 139 |
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I guess as long as you're a bit thrifty with schedules, you'll never have to pay for this. You just have to keep track when your favorite shows are on the free service.
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PBsallad
 Posts: 338 Location: Phoenix |
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If you click on the "Season Tickets" on the Hulu Plus page it will take you to a list of shows that will be supported (I think). There are several anime within it. If you hover over the show it will tell you if it will be in HD and what it will stream to. Like "Available on TV, Mobile and Web" or "Available in HD on TV, Mobile and Web", all the anime I looked at had the former.
You can subscribe to shows so any new episodes will be put into your queue. There's also a coming soon section to see when new episodes are coming, but that's for big network shows. People don't have to be all that thrifty. |
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Like basic cable, and basic cable obviously collapsed in financial failure in a few ... no, wait, that's an alternate universe. |
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fightbait
 Posts: 35 Location: Blaine, MN |
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Ten dollars is a bit much if they'll still going to play ads. It would make more sense if the basic service was free, and you paid ten dollars to remove the ads and get more content.
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goins007
Posts: 291 |
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I think the point is, if we wanted to pay for something and still have to watch commercials we would have watched it on TV to start with or just gotten through other means. Most tv watchers have been saying for years they would be willing to pay a higher fee (myself included) if it meant we could get TV shows with out ads in them. Until the internet came along though it wasn't really an option. Now it is. And I think a lot of sites that try this will find out that if they charge a fee, and still try to make us watch ads, people won't be that interested. I see this lasing a year, maybe a year and a half. |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2175 |
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Having to pay to watch commercials is pretty stupid to me. I'll just stick to the free version. Not getting rid of the ads makes it seem like I'm just paying them a donation because I'm not getting anything worthwhile in return.
I don't think the program will fail though. The additional server and bandwidth costs will be negligible. And one person paying $10 a month generates as much money as a few thousand free streams. They're close to bring even as is and this will probably make them profitable, even if only like 10% of members sign up for it. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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They didn't announce a shut down of their ad-supported streaming. The vast majority of their views will be shows that are available on television, and for cable subscribers with DVR are available for timeshifted television, and they still hit a profit with streaming those shows with a few pennies ad revenue per show. There will be a market segment out there for this, just like there is a market segment for basic cable to watch arguments over who's the baby daddy on Springer ... even if the market segment is not us. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I'm still trying to figure out what this market is and I'm drawing a complete blank. For starters, the inclusion of the ads just wiped out a potential (up to) 70% of the consumer base. Pay + ads? Not going to happen. What about the mobile market? Well, AT&T just announced they now tier their data plans. If I recall, Hulu has two 30 second ads in their showing: one at startup, and one half-way through. That's 1 minute of airtime charged against this cap amount. Oops. There went that market. Cable subscribers? hahaha. Yeah, right. Especially when the CEO says "We're not out to harm this industry." The only ones left are those with crappy TV reception and probably pay for broadband. Throwing this price atop the other one is probably not going to be beneficial given they're already watching TV (for free with ads) shows online. So who's left? Suckers, that's who. Even if they push this to consoles, no one's going to cash in when Netflix is not only cheaper, it's ad-free. I like the idea, actually. It makes sense. But to announce a more expensive product, with ads, and to a market that's changing to tiers probably isn't the best announcement to make. What they should have done was say "Yo, cable! Listen up, bitches. We're going to do everything in our power to take away your user base and give them reasons to cut your cord. Try and stop us." Then, as Hulu grows, content distributors go to them to cash in. |
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aereus
Posts: 576 |
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Yeah! I'm gonna just keep my wonderful ad-free Cable TV I pay $90/month for....oh wait. Cable and Satellite TV still have ads despite paying them a subscription fee.
This is a legitimate concern. Even mobile providers themselves have been selling smartphones and dataplans on the merits of streaming music and video on them. Now they suddenly bait and switch to stupidly small and expensive plans. I think we're going to see a backlash on that. ($10 for 25mb/month ... how is that even a "plan"? and 2gb for $30 ... easily gone in days watching streaming video)
Netflix + Hulu would get you a significant chunk of current TV programming on-demand, and in HD. On top of a gigantic back catalog of movies and TV shows, also on-demand in HD/DVD. All for less than $20. A typical cable TV subscription runs you $70+ ... especially if you want HD channels. I cancelled my cable TV when my monthly bill was hitting $150 for just TV and Internet. |
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