Hulu Plus has had a mostly positive reception from industry watchers so far. But Hulu CEO Jason Kilar doesn’t want the hype to get too out of control, hence an interview in which he insists Hulu Plus isn’t going to radically change the world. At least not for a while.
Hulu Plus, Plus What?
Hulu Plus has been unveiled at last after almost a year of speculation and leaked tidbits of information.
What we’ve ended up with is a premium service costing $10-per-month which will offer two main advantages over the free Hulu: availability on televisions and mobile devices; full seasons of popular shows.
Worth $10? That remains to be seen.
Cord-Cutting Crisis
In the 24 hours since its unveiling, Hulu Plus has been widely touted as the next step on the long road towards online video eschewing the need for cable and satellite subscriptions. Not so, according to Hulu CEO Jason Kilar.
In an interview with MediaMemo, Kilar explained the differences between Hulu Plus and a cable or satellite TV subscription, and how he believes it’s complimentary to these services rather than a substitute.
“The cable and satellite pay TV services have linear, live windows, which are different from the windows that we have in the service. There’s sports, there’s news, there’s cable…this is something different.
I believe that as you see this play out, this is something that’s going to be incremental and complimentary to your cable and satellite service. And it’s priced that way.
I don’t see this as a substitute for cable or satellite service. It’s not a product that can serve that need.”
Maybe not yet, but one day it possibly could. As content creators see the opportunities afforded them by online video, there will be an inevitable push to rid pay TV service providers of their power. And cord-cutting is already growing in popularity.
Ad-Free Options & More
The other interesting aspect of Hulu Plus is the inclusion of advertising on top of the $10-per-month fee. While most online services choose one or the other pay models, Hulu is attempting to have its cake and eat it.
Kilar said:
“What we found in our research is that there isn’t this sort of belief of ‘If I’m paying for this, I must have no ads.’
What [we asked] consumers was, ‘If you had a choice between having it be with no ads and at a higher price, [versus] having it with a relatively modest level of advertising but lower priced, which would you prefer?’ They dramatically chose, in large numbers, the latter.
There’s no reason why we couldn’t offer an ad-free version of this. It just would be at a higher price.”
The insinuation is that had ads been removed from the equation, Hulu would have had to charge a lot more than $10 for Hulu Plus. And I guess we’ll get to see how much more if the company ever does provide that option.
Conclusions
The jury is still out on Hulu Plus, and will be until the service is up and running at pace, and we get to see how many core Hulu users have signed up.
Still, the positive reception Hulu’s plans have so far got bodes well for the future, even thinking longterm and about premium online video services as a whole.
