Hulu Plus officially launches at $7.99 a month, now on Roku boxes

November 17, 2010 7:50 AM
Devindra Hardawar
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It looks like rumors of a cheaper Hulu Plus subscription, the video streaming site’s premium offering, were true after all. Hulu announced the official launch of Hulu Plus today at $7.99 a month — two bucks cheaper than the $9.99 subscription offered during its preview period.

In addition, the company announced that Hulu Plus is available on Roku’s streaming video boxes today. We reported in September that the service was coming to Roku this fall. Hulu says that in the coming months it will be adding support for Tivo Premiere digital video recorders; TVs from Vizio, LG, and Panasonic; as well as the Xbox 360 and Western Digital “TV Live” devices.

Along with the slightly lowered subscription price, Hulu has put together some special offers to entice users to try out its premium service. New subscribers will get one free week of service, you and a friend will get two weeks free if you refer them to Hulu Plus, new Roku owners get one month free, and new Sony Bravia TV or Blu-ray player owners will receive 11 weeks free.

The price drop isn’t as low as the rumored $4.99 monthly pricing, but it may still end up enticing more users to try out Hulu Plus. The current pricing puts Hulu Plus slightly below Netflix’s $8.99 plan — the cheapest monthly plan that gives you access to Netflix’s streaming service. The new pricing does little to fix Hulu Plus’s content problems, though. Certain shows aren’t available for streaming to your TV with the service, and it’s not always clear when new TV episodes are available to watch.

  • http://twitter.com/williampietri William Pietri

    I'm dumbfounded that Hulu Plus plans to charge $8 per month and then insist on showing me ads.One of the biggest upsides of Netflix to me compared with broadcast TV is that I don't have to waste 25% of my viewing time. Even if I only watch 10 hours of TV over a month, that's still 2.5 hours of time lost. If I value it at minimum wage, that's still $18/month, and my time is worth a lot more to me than that.Given that, paying Netflix an extra buck for a larger selection and no ads seems like a much better bargain.

  • pbreit

    AppleTV, please!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/alienelvis Richard Snyder

    Just signed up for HuluPlus. Then an hour later, cancelled. BE WARNED. I found a referral code so that it became “2 weeks free.” After I cancelled I found that they are still charging me $4 and change for an entire month. So there is nothing FREE about it. This is misleading and deceitful. it is a total ripoff. All I wanted was streaming on Roku for my current season shows. Hell's Kitchen, for instance. Well, they don't offer most all of the current popular shows. They don't have the same content that is FREE on the website even! I browsed through their content, and it is all old and worthless. It is over 100 old movies that no one cares about and crappy old TV shows that no one cares about. At least I can catch up on HAPPY TOWN. I should have known better. Hulu PLUS does not mean normal Hulu content PLUS more, it means “different content.” It should have been called Hulu Different. Or Hulu Ripoff. Or Hulu Minus would have been more accurate. MINUS the good content. MINUS my money.Good job, Hulu, you just scammed $4 and change off of me. I feel like an idiot for being excited about your service.

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