Hulu Drops Monthly Subscription Price, Teases New Features & Content
by Tim Chaten
November 17, 2010
Hulu announced that its premium service, Hulu Plus, is now out of preview status, and is now available to anyone. Hulu Plus, like Hulu, provides access to new and old TV seasons on your computer and multiple other devices. The Plus service gives you access to programming not available on the regular free Hulu. The Plus service also gives you access to Hulu on "non-computer” devices. The service brings its content to your iOS devices through a free universal application. Hulu also did some other very cool things today.
The service is now available as a one week free trial to anyone. The service is also available as a two week free trial to those that get referral invites from Hulu Plus subscribers. The cost of the service has been lowered from $9.99 to $7.99.
Hulu has also released version 2.0 of their iOS app today. The features include a new split-screen view, enhanced queue management, improved playback performance, bug fixes and more. For more information on this release check out our first look here on AppAdvice.
Hulu is also working on bringing even more content to the service. They are going to be making old seasons of Monk, Psych, and Battlestar Galactica available. By the end of the year the service will also have the entire collection of Saturday Night Live! episodes.
I have been using Hulu Plus since the preview was announced. Here is the official announcement Hulu sent out to subscribers today:
“Since we're now offering Hulu Plus at a lower price than during the preview, your subscription fee has been lowered to $7.99/month, and on your next billing cycle, we'll also automatically credit your account with $2 for each month you've been a subscriber. In addition, we're now offering a 1-week free trial for all new subscribers, so we'll be issuing you an additional $2 credit since the free trial wasn't in place during the preview. We'd also like to offer you the chance to earn more free time on Hulu Plus by helping us spread the word about the service. For each friend who uses your referral to join Hulu Plus, we'll give you two additional weeks for free, up to 20 weeks total. Each of your referrals will also receive two weeks free on their first month's subscription. For more details on the program and to invite your friends, please visit http://www.hulu.com/profile/referrals.”My account now shows that I have $12 worth of free service. Hulu is also providing me with a way to earn even more free service. Most companies would simply lower the cost of service without providing a refund to early adopters. This move by Hulu will bring a great them a great deal of customer loyalty. Now with Hulu offering the service at a lower cost, are you going to sign up? Let us know in the comments!
