Audio Video News

 

There has been talk (arguments, even) about a premium subscription service from Hulu for quite some time, but today it became official with the announcement of Hulu Plus. $9.99 a month brings about many of the features Hulu fans have been asking for all along. As the headline suggests, your payment will get you 720p HD streams of "many programs" with adaptive bitrate streaming to prevent long load times. Netflix and Xbox 360 have proven this to be a pretty effective method, hopefully Hulu can do it even better. Alas, there's no mention of upgraded sound (let alone surround-sound) so we're not expecting any quantum leaps in quality on that front.

In addition to the higher-res streams, you'll also get more content. The Current Season Ticket feature will offer up every episode of current seasons (The Office, Glee, House, etc), while other shows will be available in their entirety (30 Rock, Arrested Development, The X-Files, etc). Plus, all of that content will be available on an increasing array of devices. The most newsworthy of them being Apple's iPhone and iPad. If you're not the iType, you can also get in on the action through the Xbox 360 and PS3, as well as TVs and BD players from Sony, Samsung and Vizio. 

The announcement has made it abundantly clear why the company was so intent on keeping its content away from third parties like Boxee. The new platform also boasts its ability to "extend its innovative and targeted ad platform across four screens, reaching Internet-connected users wherever they are." That means you're goin to be paying $10 a month to watch ads, no matter which device you choose. There are plenty of people out there in Internet land saying that this is one more nail in the coffin of big cable, but that doesn't ring completely true with me. It's yet another subscription service to pay for, which means that you're in for $20+ a month (after tax) if you're going to include a Netflix account. Plus, unlike Netflix, the payment system doesn't absolve you of your duty to watch ads all together. And, since they're not on a DVR, you won't be able to skip them. Ultimately, it seems like a step in the right direction. When a company is willing to offer more content at better bitrates that's available from more devices, it's hard to complain. But, there are still real world issues to consider, like how it will perform under a heavy load of users or just how HD their 720p streams really are. You can try to find out for yourselves by signing up for a trial account (which appears to be some kind of lottery), or just by spending the cash when the service rolls out in full next month.