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Hulu Launching $9.95 Subscription Plan as Soon as Next Month, Sources Say

by Terrence O'Brien on April 22, 2010 at 10:55 AM

Hulu To Start Charging As Soon As May 24
Sources inside Hulu have told the Los Angeles Times that the video streaming service is moving forward with plans to charge a subscription fee for a premium version. Under the rumored plan, users would be able to watch the most recent five episodes of their favorite shows for free, while access to deeper archives, called Hulu Plus, would cost $9.95 a month.

In two short years, Hulu has grown into the second most visited video streaming site on the Web, become an integral part of people's entertainment consumption and managed to turn a sizable profit. But the $100 million in advertising revenue collected by the joint effort of News Corp., NBC Universal and Walt Disney pales in comparison to the income they are used to seeing from their broadcast and DVD businesses.

Those same sources also claimed that Hulu will be gradually increasing its level of advertising until online episodes carry the same number of commercials as they would in broadcast -- a move that concerns us much more than a subscription fee.

All of this is unconfirmed, of course. Hulu did not officially respond to the L.A. Times' request for comment, and our own request went unanswered as well. The changes could be instituted as soon as the end of May; we just hope it coincides with the launch of a new mobile site or app. [From: LA Times]

Tags: advertising, hulu, money, onlinevideo, streaming, StreamingVideo, subscription, top, tv, web

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