Yesterday, Hulu announced the details of their Hulu Plus plan. Â Of course, being the Internet, it was immediately filled with people saying it was too expensive, not enough content, and that the inclusion of ads was a deal breaker.
You know, on the content end, they are probably right, but that it something that will get better over time. Â But the price and ads… Â Think about your cable service if you have it. Â You pay XX for TV and XX for Internet access. Â In my case, with Comcast, those prices would be about $50 and $45 respectively (it varies based on the package you get). Â Personally, due to issues with Comcast not having a DVR capable of letting me record 6 shows at a time and their OnDemand service not having everything I already pay for for free, I kicked the TV part to the curb and just pay for Internet now. Â At the moment, I torrent, but it means I watch shows a day or two late — minimum (someone has to upload it before I can download it). Â But if Hulu were to give me access to even half of those shows on a completely OnDemand basis for $10 a month, even with commercials, I’ll take it.
And about those commercials… oddly enough, Ctrl+Alt+Del ran a related comic and rant. Â Are commercials really that bad? Â Yeah, sometimes they are annoying, but in general they are informative, about products or shows that might interest me, and then, if I want, I can go buy them. Â Since switching to torrenting, where they always edit out the commercials, I’ve been missing my advertising. Â New shows will pop up out of the woodwork and be a few episodes in before I’ve even heard of them (you know, because I don’t spend my time trolling TV Network and entertainment gossip websites). Â I’ll go to the store and see a product on the shelf and say, “Hey! This is great!” and find out that it’s been available for months, only I’d never seen an ad for it so I didn’t know it existed. Â And seriously, why is Hulu for $10 with commercials bad but cable TV for $50+ with commercials okay?
Personally, I’m excited. Â This sort of OnDemand a la carte TV watching is exactly what I want. Â Sure, torrenting is free, but I’d much rather support the shows I watch in some way AND not have to deal with the annoying limitations of cable TV providers. Â I just wish the Xbox version wasn’t being delayed to 2011.