Hulu - Plus or Minus?

With the advent of the iPad / iPhone 4 came the excuse the Hulu has been waiting for to charge for content that it had claimed would be free.

You know, Hulu.com, the website with the banner at the top of the page that says "Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free." Here's an example from today, August 13, 2010, several weeks after Hulu Plus was launched:

Except, now that we have Hulu Plus, your favorites aren't available at anytime for free.

I was overseas while this happened (in other words, in the vast swathes of the world where no one, not even US citizens, can watch their favorites, anytime, for free) so it wasn't until this week that I had a chance to explore Hulu's approach to its three-part slogan.

The company put up a blog post that set off warning bells in the first few paragraphs with terms like:

Hulu Plus is a new, revolutionary ad-supported subscription product that is incremental and complementary to the existing Hulu service.

Follow that? Here's a breakdown of the wording

On first blush, it's ad-supported, just like Hulu is. So far so good. I might be able to tolerate an ad or two, but not the 10-15 that seem to be popping up in each episode (as Hulu execs keep experimenting with odd pre-roll vs interstitial ad models every few weeks).

What's revolutionary about it, though? Apparently the revolution is that Hulu Plus is a PAID subscription service that REQUIRES one to watch advertisements.

Wait, so I get to pay to watch ads?

Yes, apparently so. That must be the complementary part of Hulu Plus: both serve ads, possibly some of the exact same ads.

So what's the incremental way Hulu is enticing the average Hulu viewer to pay for the subscription?  Show them a past episode, then yank it.

Seriously, a committee on bad marketing couldn't make this stuff up. On second thought maybe only a committee could.

Here's an example of what you see if you try to watch a video that's been yanked back into the dark recesses of Hulu Plus. This example is courtesy of Safari crashing a few days after I'd watched an episode that was free (just not anytime) and then restoring all the windows after the crash.

The Hulu Plus blog advocates the reasoning behind all of this ad-supported revolutionary approach to paying to watch advertisements is because of all the devices you'll get to watch those ads on: the iPhone 4, iPad, set-top boxes, Macs, PCs, etc.

Except, on July 29, 2010, a month after the blog post, the iPhone 4 upgraders were upset that they weren't able to view these ads on the iPhone 4. Says one commenter (unaltered):

I upgraded to a Iphone because of Hulu plus. I’m disappointed in hulu for not letting my use the service after it was announced. I’m probally now going to return the Iphone 4 and go back to my 3GS and purchase slingbox and watch for free each month off my dvr and direct tv. Better do something quick our your going to loose me for good $120 a year . . . . 

On second thought, maybe this is a brilliant scheme, undercutting the SlingBox concept of free viewing of these same episodes from television or your DVR.

So, please, someone inform the committee that the chance to pay-per-view-advertisements is brilliant, but they're underselling it.