Some of you might enjoy watching your favorite television shows on Hulu. You don’t have to download anything (like torrents), it takes less time to watch an episode on Hulu than watching it on television since you only have to endure one or two commercials rather than having to go through a whole stream of commercials as you do when watching television (although we can start a new debate on what it means to watch television today), and you can catch up on whatever episode or segment of the show you missed when it first aired on television whenever you want (no need to worry about the content disappearing from the website because of copyright infringement like YouTube). With content streaming Hulu allows you to save the trouble of downloading the content and watch the five latest episodes of popular shows for free…as long as you’re willing to tolerate several obnoxious commercials. Free content, minimum advertisements, space for user comments and discussion (a la YouTube), and aggregation of shows from more than 200 content suppliers have all contributed in making this website of joint venture among NBC, Fox, and ABC (although there continues to be talks between Hulu and CBS, the Eye network is not a part of Hulu. Here’s why.) very popular among users over the past several years. However, in order to search for other ways to generate revenue Hulu has begun a monthly-based subscription service on June 29, 2010, called Hulu Plus, which is basically like Hulu but has an expanded content library with more episodes of shows available to the users (those who use this service will have access to all of the episodes from the current season as well as full series of classic television shows). Hulu continues to provide free episodes for non-subscribers but the number of free episodes that are available seem to be diminishing. What is puzzling about Hulu Plus is that although it collects a monthly fee from its service users ($7.99/month) it still contain ads (If you’re interested in Hulu’s response to why we have to pay to watch advertisements read this piece.). Furthermore, for those who want to use Hulu through different platforms other than computers such as iPad, iPhone, or other smartphones, none of the contents are available to the users for free-even the ones that are free if you access them through the internet. Hulu’s response is that the fee is for convenience–we can watch our favorite shows anytime, anywhere, on through whatever device (Watch the clip of the response from Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, on why Hulu is making users who want to access Hulu contents on a different device pay.). Is it fair for the consumers to watch advertisements for a paid service? Is it fair for those who want to access content on Hulu through a different platform to pay for the same service that is free on the Internet? Can convenience that digital technology loudly promises us only be enjoyed with a payment?
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