

Hulu Plus Arrives on Apple TV - shawndumas
http://blog.hulu.com/2012/07/31/hulu-plus-arrives-on-apple-tv/

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rkudeshi
This app has been purportedly ready for 10 months and was just waiting for the
"politics" to be worked out between Apple and Hulu.[1]

Now that it's here, I wonder if the sticking point was Apple's cut of any new
subscriptions. If you start a Hulu+ subscription from the Apple TV itself, it
seems to be charged to your Apple account, instead of being billed by Hulu
directly.

I wonder if that means Apple is getting a lifetime 30% cut, like they've
recently started enforcing for iOS apps with subscriptions?

[1] [http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/31/hulu-plus-app-is-ready-for-
app...](http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/31/hulu-plus-app-is-ready-for-apple-tv-
decision-to-update-is-political-not-technical/)

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WillyF
I wonder if Mountain Lion's Airplay feature kind of forced Hulu's hand.

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yahelc
Wouldn't it be the other way around, if Hulu Plus subscribers could just use
ML's airplay feature without an official app?

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olegious
I tried Hulu Plus for exactly 5 minutes, then I realized that the shows that I
wanted to watch didn't have their previous seasons available or even episodes
from earlier in a season. What is the rationalle behind that?! If I'm a new
viewer to a show, why would I pay if I can't watch a series or at least a
season from the beginning? So it was back to piracy for me.

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smackfu
I think a better way to look at is that if you are currently buying all your
shows on iTunes, Hulu+ could save you quite a bit of money if you are willing
to watch some ads. Like you get The Daily Show on Hulu+, which would normally
run you about $15-20 a month if you were buying it.

It complements NetFlix well in that regard too.

Comparing it to piracy seems silly.

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jaredsohn
I think the main difference in content between Netflix and Hulu Plus is that
Hulu Plus gives you access to episodes from the current season (and often the
full season beyond the most recent ones available on regular Hulu.)

Also, the Daily Show isn't a great example since episodes deal with news so I
can't imagine many people buying up old episodes. (And you can get free
episodes going back a month at <http://www.thedailyshow.com/>)

Edit: The Daily Show is actually an okay example now that I realize that you
wanted Hulu+ for the non-desktop experience rather than for back episodes.

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smackfu
Both of which are desktop solutions. Yes, they kinda work on a TV with
mirroring and such but they don't have a good couch / remote experience like
AppleTV or the various other systems. If my non-techie girlfriend can't figure
it out easily, then it's not worth my time.

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jaredsohn
Agreed that if you want to be able to watch recent shows on non-desktop
systems, Hulu+ is a good choice. (Added an edit to previous comment.)

I just don't understand the statement "It complements NetFlix well in that
regard too." in the context of your previous comment. Hulu+ complements
Netflix in a different way than it complements iTunes. While Hulu+ offers a
way to get a lot of iTunes content for a flat monthly rate (albeit with
commercials), Hulu+'s advantage over Netflix is getting newer content.

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smackfu
>Hulu+ complements Netflix in a different way than it complements iTunes.

My meaning was that both fill in the "current season" gap that Netflix has.

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kerb
I subscribed to Hulu and was paying monthly fees. Its no different to watching
crappy TV. Got fed up with commercials in between. No Thanks Hulu.

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digitalengineer
(European here) Wait! There are COMMERCIALS in between? Why? Doesn't that defy
the idea of high-quality service?

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Timothee
You don't get high quality service at only $7.99/month.

In my opinion, this is a problem with Hulu Plus and Netflix: it's too cheap.
Unlimited access to a catalog of movies should/could be more expensive. That
could possibly allow them to have a better offering/no commercials.

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phren0logy
I wholeheartely agree. NetFlix has made some silly missteps, but the outcry
over raising their rates was confusing to me. The value per dollar is mind-
boggling. It already has more great stuff that I have time to watch, and I
would still pay substantially more for a deeper catalog.

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engtech
I really don't understand why they don't do netflix premium with per-movie
rentals for $4-5 per streamed movie.

Given that all the big box movie rental stores have died, this would make them
a player vs iTunes and Amazon who manage to have better selection than
Netflix.

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CrazedGeek
The user outcry of "I already pay Netflix a whole $10 a month, and now they
want me to pay MORE?" would be ridiculously huge, if the previous fiasco is
any indication.

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melvinram
For all it's faults, Hulu Plus is pretty great. $8/month for around 80% of
what you want. I'll buy the rest from iTunes on a seasonal basis. I hate the
ads. I hate that some shows aren't all there or there at all. But it's the
best way to watch current TV legally on demand at a reasonable price. Combined
with Netflix, it's enough to cord-cut.

Apple TV can be awesome if they allow app developers to create apps for it. As
it stands, the Netflix + Hulu Plus combo is nice but Roku has had that
forever. Roku also has HBOGO, Amazon Instant Video, Dish World, a few news
channels, live sports and more.

The nice integration between OSX, iOS and Apple TV is not enough reason to
jump to Apple TV just yet but I'd switch in a heart beat if/when they add App
Store to it.

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phren0logy
I like the variety available on Roku, but the painfully slow UI has me ready
to walk away.

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engtech
I feel the same way about Boxee.

The Boxee netflix app is painful to use. It's so much faster to load up
Netflix on the iPad and then use Airplay to stream to the Boxee.

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JonLim
Ah, another service that I would happily pay for, but cannot for being
Canadian.

PIRACY IT IS!

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WimLeers
It's even less likely to come to Europe, so … unfortunately you're right.

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digitalengineer
By far the best way to fight piracy: Supply high quality content that is
easily viewed. Now what about view-as-you-go instead of subscription-based?

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smackfu
"View-as-you-go"? Isn't that just iTunes?

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127001brewer
Unfortunately, you can't rent TV Shows from iTunes anymore[1].

[1] [http://allthingsd.com/20110826/apple-pulls-the-plug-on-tv-
re...](http://allthingsd.com/20110826/apple-pulls-the-plug-on-tv-rentals/)

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smackfu
I'm not sure why iTunes rentals didn't take off. It seems like most people do
want rentals, since they watch a show only once. Maybe the price point wasn't
very compelling? Or the selection of rentals wasn't as good as that for
buying?

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127001brewer
I don't think it was the selection of rentals, but other reasons including:
Apple TV wasn't _as_ popular as it is now [1]; and, most likely, you're
already paying for TV Service with your internet service provider - so why you
would pay ( _again_ ) for a show you've already paid for? (And, most likely,
you're paying for DVR service, so you could have just recorded your show for
future (and, potentially, unlimited) viewing.)

1\. <http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/07/24/apple-tv-xbox>

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yalogin
Getting Hulu plus on the Apple TV is something I was looking for a long time.
For watching TV shows (for me) at least Hulu is a lot better than Netflix. The
only thing Netflix has going for it in our household at least is the Kids
section. If not for that I would drop them without a second thought. Have to
check out how the kids section is on Hulu.

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dr_
You can sign up through iTunes, and Apple likely gets a cut of this, but I'm
guessing Hulu's hand was sort of forced once Mountain Lion allowed AirPlay
streaming from the Mac to Apple TV.

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roc
I'd be surprised if that was it. iOS already allowed AirPlay streaming of Hulu
Plus. And there are far more iOS devices out there than Macs.

Not to mention how much easier it is to shoot content from your mobile device
to an AppleTV, vs getting off the couch, going to your PC, starting the
content, starting Airplay...

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rb2k_
Interestingly, if you sign up using a US Apple ID, there doesn't seem to be
any additional Geo-IP filtering in place currently. I was able to watch an
episode from Germany without a VPN/DNS solution.

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lsdafjklsd
I have had Hulu Plus on Apple TV for 6 months... what is the difference?

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huggyface
Not a typical Apple fan, but the Apple TV is an excellent device. It fulfills
its role brilliantly, uses very little power, and is very inexpensive. It
should be their most successful product.

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127001brewer
I have the first generation Apple TV and - for me - it's a great device.
(Although sync'ing content to the device is a pain, which is why the newer
generations stream content from your computer.)

The _problem_ with the Apple TV is that it's not intuitively easy to
understand what it does or why you would want one.

For example, when someone sees my Apple TV for the first time, they always
asked "how much does it cost per month?" and they are always amazed at the
amount of content that can be viewed, purchased, rented, etc. (I always
explain it as "iTunes for your TV", but I feel like that's a disservice to the
device.)

Apple TV is great if you have kids since you can easily view videos (like
PBS's "Word Girl", "Curious George"), look at family pictures or watch family
movies.

