Comments on: Hulu Might Turn Into a Pay Service

By: credito pessoal

credito pessoal — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:02:09 +0000

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By: Weekly Personal Finance Roundup | BudgetPulse

Weekly Personal Finance Roundup | BudgetPulse — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:31:54 +0000

[...] My Life ROI thinks that Hulu the free service airing our favorite TV shows may become a paid service. Who can blame them, popular shows with HD quality, they are doing very well. Hulu Might Turn into a Pay Service [...]

By: Credit Card Chaser

Credit Card Chaser — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:28:28 +0000

@Peter,

Yea, the 2 tier approach might be the way to go (that is the approach that Pandora recently moved to) but it will be interesting to see what route they decide to go.
Credit Card Chaser´s last blog ..Wells Fargo Credit Cards to be Marketed to Wachovia Customers

By: Credit Card Chaser

Credit Card Chaser — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:27:13 +0000

@MyLifeROI,

You are right in that it is a classic strategy to offer something for totally free and then once there are a ton of participants to start charging for either a premium service or for the service as a whole. Like you, I would consider paying for Hulu too though if the price was reasonable.
Credit Card Chaser´s last blog ..Wells Fargo Credit Cards to be Marketed to Wachovia Customers

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:48:55 +0000

I can’t blame them for trying to figure out ways to make the service profitable. Really the only way to know what model works best is to give one a try and see how it shakes out. Too bad it won’t remain free, I always use it to catch up on episodes of “The Office”.

By: MyLifeROI

MyLifeROI — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:30:12 +0000

@Peter & @Craig

You both have a similar idea — Craig with some shows charging and others not; Peter with two tiers of service, one with ads and the other not.

I think the tiered system would work pretty well if they made the ads more intrusive. Right now they are pretty short and infrequent. If they start lengthening and increasing the ads, then the incentive to pay for a higher tier would increase.

Two interesting models, I wonder which direction they will inevitably head?

By: MyLifeROI

MyLifeROI — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:27:12 +0000

@Matt SF,

You have a good point. Hulu IS my digital crack. ;)

But in all seriousness, that is a tried and true method. Free gets your name out there and gets name recognition. They have gotten people (myself included) to ditch cable TV and use them almost exclusively.

If they got a slightly better offering, which Comcast could probably bring, I would consider paying as long as it is much cheaper than normal cable.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:55:45 +0000

I’m not sure many people would continue with hulu if it was a pay-for premium service. Maybe a two tier system might be nice – one tier where pay and you get to watch shows without the commercials. The free tier you’d still have to watch the commercials (like there are now).
Peter´s last blog ..How Saving for Tomorrow Improves the Quality of Life Today

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:58:25 +0000

I am sure there will be some sort of subscription for Hulu and you can’t blame them. they offer a great service, nothing wrong with charging. Curious how this will develop and what the plan will be. I have to believe it will be a freemium model and only certain shows will be charged.

By: Matt SF

Matt SF — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:46:24 +0000

I think you’re right… it’s hard to imagine they would put all of this content up for free. Especially since so many people have canceled their cable and relied purely on online video to supplement their frugality.

Reminds me of the old drug dealer business model: give it away for free in the beginning, get them hooked, start charging and up the price as time goes along.
Matt SF´s last blog ..Why it Pays to Follow Your Boss on Facebook or Twitter