Although Mari and I were preoccupied with Hulu Plus landing on Roku earlier this week, two other bits of H+ news crossed the wire. Wednesday evening, I noticed and grabbed the Hulu Plus iOS update pictured above. I’ve been grossly negligent in hitting the gym lately, which is where I do most of my catch-up TV watching. So I can’t really comment on any iPhone improvements. However, the new iPad split screen view seems like it could be significant. Additionally, after being pleasantly surprised to find Hulu Plus chock full of movie trailers via Roku, I tried to get at them via the iPhone app… but came up empty. So perhaps Hulu’s mobile UI still needs some work.
More importantly, Hulu has dropped their monthly subscription fee from $10 to $8. Which isn’t quite the 50% price cut many were hoping for. Generally speaking, you find more customers at lower prices. However, folks are still bothered by commercial interruption (without stopping to consider their cable company does the same thing) and inconsistant content availability… dependent upon viewing devices and inscrutable schedules or business dealings. Regardless, I’ll take the discount and keep my subscription going for the time being. And I applaud Hulu for doing right by their customers — check out the email I received:
Since we’re now offering Hulu Plus at a lower price than during the preview, your subscription fee has been lowered to $7.99/month, and on your next billing cycle, we’ll also automatically credit your account with $2 for each month you’ve been a subscriber. In addition, we’re now offering a 1-week free trial for all new subscribers, so we’ll be issuing you an additional $2 credit since the free trial wasn’t in place during the preview.
Related, Hulu has introduced a referral program. If you sign up for Hulu Plus via an affiliate link your free trial is two weeks instead of one. And I too shall receive a free two weeks of service as compensation. You know what to do. Although I prefer you buy a TiVo or Roku to watch it on. ;)
“However, folks are still bothered by commercial interruption (without stopping to consider their cable company does the same thing)”
You should really consider purchasing one of those newfangled DVR’s, Dave. Not only does it allow you to timeshift, but it also allows you to skip past commercials sent to you by your cable company.
You’ll hear many different opinions about which kind of DVR to go with, but my money says that TiVo® brand DVR’s are the least worst of the bunch.
Heh. Sadly (?), we still watch a lot of live TV. Things that we must see as they occur (assuming the timing is good) like sports, news, and Dexter. Also we catch various HGTV shows (live or recorded) as background noise… with commercial interruption.
If I have to watch a “live” event, I record it to my TiVo and wait until I have enough of the show to begin watching so that I can fast forward through the commercials and arrive at end about the same time as the recording finishes.
“Things that we must see as they occur (assuming the timing is good) like sports, news, and Dexter.”
You’ve got to be kidding. Dexter runs commercial free on cable.
And sports? I can tell you a good approximation how much lag you need to accumulate before beginning watching a “live” NBA game in order to be able to make it all the way through commercial free, depending on whether or not you want to watch the halftime show.
And the beauty of commercial skipping in sports is that the timeout duration is generally predetermined by rule, and thus predictable for the user. I know exactly how many 30 second skips to hit when the NBA goes to commercial to get back precisely on time. Skipping commercials in sports is actually far easier than skipping commercials in sitcoms.
(Although I get the idea that you’re a football junkie, Dave, and that may change things, since all the games on the same day, and then you’d want to live channel surf. But aside from football, “live” sports were made for commercial skipping. You never have to leave the arena.)
“Also we catch various HGTV shows (live or recorded) as background noise… with commercial interruption.”
I’m happy on the TiVo platform, but the one thing that’s always tempted me to switch to W7MCPC is the lure of having an automated ComSkip setup that would let me strip commercials out of the shows I put on as background noise.
That one thing alone is not near worth the hassle, but it sure sounds pleasant.
True Dexter is commercial free, but it’s an example of a show I like to catch in real time. (Many of the others aren’t on right now.) Although about 50% of the time I watch it Monday or Tuesday.
Yeah, when watching sports I flip around. Especially Saturdays for college football. I rarely to never watch a game straight through. Even games I want to watch in their entirety, I surf on the commercial break. Will be interesting to see how/if ESPN3 on Xbox changes how I watch.
Just like others, I usually watch even sports games with delay, especially football (American kind). You can watch a three-hour game in an hour or hour and a half by not only skipping commercials and halftime, but also using 30-second skip to move between plays (works better on TiVo; harder to time on U-Verse).
This is a mess right now. I can go watch Fringe, The Apprentice, SGU, Burn Notice, Undercovers (even tho cancelled) for FREE without even logging in on Hulu IF I just log on through any of the zillions of computers out there. BUT, if I use the PAID FOR Hulu+ iPad app…those are NOT AVAILABLE. How does that make ANY sense.