Hulu is planning to go to a subscription model.

Hulu to charge subscription fee
Posted: 12:23 PM ET

Popular online video service Hulu will start charging subscription fees sometime next year, says News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey.

While speaking at a recent Broadcasting & Cable summit Carey announced his plans for Hulu: “I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.”

http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/23/hulu-to-charge-subscription-fee/

Again, check out Vanity Fair, which does some excellent reporting on this convergence of business and media. Start with this article by Michael Wolff on this very subject.

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2009/11/michael-wolff-200911

The file sharing community has grown stronger in the last decade because they give consumers exactly what they want: total control and total freedom over media content. I believe that Hulu became popular because it was an easier alternative for most people. I cannot count how many comments I have read over the past two days where people wrote that they will just go back to downloading TV shows if they cannot watch them for free on Hulu. And it really doesn’t matter if Chase Carey or Jeff Zucker “mis-spoke” about Hulu, eventually the media companies involved will want to increase Hulu revenue by utilizing a subscription-based model. That is when everyone will bail (if they haven’t already).

But Hulu would love to get into the ballgame of offering better movies and pay-cable programming. “True Blood” “Dexter” “Californication” on Hulu.

There is good reason to believe negotiations for a Premium model of Hulu will be coming down the pike, but the panic spread to their core product which is unlikely to change, as the ink is already dry on those contracts.

Sure he can. What he really can’t wrap his head around is the notion that he’s expected to subsidize money-losing businesses forever.

The pay-for-content strategy is a put up or shut up gambit. Show me that you can make a profit on your own or get out of town. Sometimes I think he doesn’t actually expect pay-for-content to work. It’s just a way to transition out of some bad businesses.

Exactly correct.

Hulu seems to operate under the delusion that they are an independent entity and not a wholly owned subsidiary of some of the largest traditional media companies in the world.

If Jason Kilar and Chase Carey have a disagreement over the future of Hulu, who do you think is likely to prevail in that debate?

They have no control of their own destiny. None. It’s like a coach announcing that he’s going to bench his quarterback and the QB then putting out a statement that he has no current plan to be benched. It ain’t up to you, pal.

Perhaps because he’s about the only one who’s succeeded with putting content behind a paid firewall (WSJ.com)

Murdoch just cannot wrap his head around the fact that people will not pay for internet content, and he has been trying to get all content providers to join him in charging for internet content. His rationale is that if everyone charges, then people will have no choice but to pay. He even accused the internet sites that collate other sites stories for people of “stealing” from him, even though the stories they are re-posting have been posted for free on Murdoch’s own sites.

Personally, I am in the “trial balloon” camp. I think they were throwing this out there to see how much reaction they would get. And if you do not believe there are people this dumb running these gigantic corporations, then you have not been paying much attention to NBC lately.

Hulu spots should hopefully have a slightly better CPM since they can’t be bypassed and I would argue someone watching a computer screen is much more engaged than the hope that they’re paying attention to a screen across the room.

Also I think there are certainly cases where there are executives at the partners who own the company who don’t like aspects of Hulu, but they were not involved in the formation of Hulu or the decision making process. That won’t stop them from offering their opinions in a public forum

they will probably be doing some sort of paid programming sooner or later if they can do it legally. charge for new content but keep older stuff free, maybe.

guess it depends on how it works out … will they keep enough viewers to pay for the site. would have to estimate how much money they would save(bandwidth) after all the people that dont want to pay leaves.

is it worth it to lose all those viewers … I wonder how many people they rope into watching new shows on tv after people find them on Hulu.