February 01, 2012, 8:24 AM — When talking about streaming TV and movies, the first company that comes to mind lately has been Netflix, and often not in a good light. The well documented stumbles of last summer and fall seemed to cast a pall over streaming media in general.
Hulu, in the meanwhile, has been trucking along almost under the radar (once they gave up trying to find a buyer for themselves). It's time for that to change. Yesterday at All Things D's Dive Into Media conference Hulu's Jason Kilar put himself in the spotlight to bring us all up to date on All Things Hulu.
Much of the talk seems to have been about what great shape Hulu is in and all that typical cheerleading jazz we get when someone with a vested interest in portraying a company in a positive light is speaking publicly.
A few good details did come out, though. Kilar say that Hulu Plus has 1.5 million paying customers (keep in mind that these customers are also generating ad revenue since Hulu Plus includes ads) and that the company is going to spend $500 million on acquiring content in 2012. Further, he says that Hulu pays content providers more per user per month than anyone else in the industry, implying that Hulu is on better terms with content providers than other services are.
Kilar claims Hulu has 330 content partners (I guess he's counting every content creator that has a show on the service) and is ready to start rolling out original content starting with Battleground, a faux documentary that follows a politician's campaign for senator. Hulu has ordered 13 episodes of the half-hour show and they start airing on February 14th, just about a week after Netflix's own original show, Lilyhammer, debuts on that service.
One of the most confusing things about Hulu vs Hulu Plus is the fact that some content can be watched on a computer for free via Hulu, and other content can be watching on a TV or mobile device with the subscription-based Hulu Plus, but the two sets of data are seemingly unrelated. There's stuff you can only watch on a computer, and stuff you can only watch on a device. When you've been watching a show on your computer and you pony up your $8/month to get Hulu Plus, only to find that show isn't included in Hulu Plus, it can be rather frustrating.
Unfortunately while Kilar acknowledged the issue, sort of ("the distinction might be confusing for our grandkids down the road") there's apparently no end to the dichotomy in sight. He also blew off the relatively recent 8-day blackout window on some content (shows from some networks, including Fox, show up on Hulu 8 days after they run on live TV).
You can read a transcript of the interview at All Things D.
I haven't checked in on Hulu in a while now; I have to confess I'm not a cord cutter (Is it odd that I feel a bit sheepish admitting that?) and I can barely keep up with the stuff that accumulates on my DVR. When I do get on top of that I generally turn to Netflix. And yet I'm glad that Hulu is there. If I missed a particular episode of a series I really enjoy and Hulu Plus offered it, I wouldn't think twice about re-subbing to Hulu Plus for a month in order to get the episode I missed and then see what else was on the service to watch.
What about the rest of you? Are you still watching Hulu? Any of you subscribed to Hulu Plus? Did Netflix's blunders drive you from one service to the other? Let us know in the comments!
Read more of Peter Smith's TechnoFile blog and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Follow Peter on Twitter at @pasmith. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.
Follow Peter on Google+
