Why Hulu Plus Isn’t Worth It

Hulu is great, Hulu Plus isn't (Click to enlarge)

I don’t want to send the wrong message here, so to be clear, Hulu as a advertising-supported service is great. I was never sucked into watching shows for seasons at a time until Hulu and its time-shifting video. Between working full-time, volunteering at church, class in the evening, and just having a life, television certainly wasn’t a priority. When Hulu rolled around, I cut the cable and never looked back.

Hulu Plus, just released to the masses, is a $7.99 a month service (still advertising-supported, I might add) which gives you access to high-definition video (when available) and entire catalogs of episodes from select shows. As it stands, Hulu [free] will typically have available the most recent 5 episodes of any given show. On the other hand, subscribing to Hulu Plus gives access to the entire current season of, for example, Lie to Me and in other circumstances, as in the case of Family Guy, Hulu Plus will unleash the entire run of the show for viewing.

So, why is it not worth it? Right now, you can sign up for a free one-week trial of Hulu Plus. Naturally, I signed up for it, but made sure I placed the cancellation date on my calendar lest I be charged. Immediately, I hop on my new Roku XD with the Hulu Plus channel installed to see what magic has been made available. To my dismay, I find only a handful of shows I subscribe to (out of 19 total) are even available. To see exactly what is going on, I hop on a computer to find my queue has a new column showing what is available and where (see picture above).

I’m still completely blown away by the idiocy of blocking Hulu [free] from being viewed on a  Google TV device, or blocking Hulu [free] from Roku’s line of new media players, but to find out that Hulu Plus (the reason for the blocking) doesn’t even allow me to watch most of my favorite shows from my Roku on a TV even AFTER paying them AND after consenting to watching advertisements, just completely kills the deal.

As it stands… Hulu? The best thing to happen to broadcast TV since color television sets. Hulu Plus? Not worth a dime. I’ll continue using PlayOn to stream Hulu [free] to my Roku, thank you very much.

UPDATE (2/11/11): I just received a marketing email from PlayOn claiming you can add PlayOn to the Roku. Instructions here: http://www.playon.tv/devices/roku

Hulu Needs to Get More Creative with their Advertising

It would probably be more efficient to not play the same 30 second slot in several shows for every commercial break.

Plus, I’m getting tired of hearing about University of Phoenix.