Hulu Considers Slashing Plus Service Fee in Half

Hulu (News - Alert) Plus subscribers, you may have an additional $5 to spare every month.

Rumor has it that Hulu is considering a price cut from its original $10-per-month Hulu Plus service, which gives users access to more than 2,000 episodes from 120 seasons of shows from channels such as ABC, Fox and NBC, in addition to the more current network TV episodes that Hulu.com offers for free.

This price cut, which may be as much as half off – from $9.95 to $4.95 – isn’t official, just yet. Peter Kafka, of All Things Digital (News - Alert) and who, coincidentally, was among the first to announce Hulu would induct a fee for content-watching, said that Hulu is still contemplating the price drop.

The slash in price may be an indication that the video site’s strategy to create another revenue stream in addition to its free, ad-supported site, was just not working. In addition to a plethora of free TV shows and movies, Hulu Plus was created so paying subscribers would have access to a larger selection, as well as the ability to watch Hulu on devices such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and TVs with Internet capability, such as Samsung (News - Alert) and Sony.

This move may pit Hulu Plus against Netflix, which currently charges only $8.99 a month for full access to its streaming selection of 20,000-plus TV episodes and movies, in addition to its DVD-by mail rental.

But, Netflix and Hulu Plus are not alone in the streaming entertainment battlefield. Amazon Video and Apple’s (News - Alert) iTunes both range from 99 cents to $2.99 for TV shows, and $3.99 for movies. Amazon and iTunes also both offer a catalog of $75,000 digital downloads. Even better, iTunes has a selection of $3,000 movies and TV shows in high-definition.

Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet copy editor. Previously she was assistant to the editor at The Darien Times, a weekly newspaper in Darien, Conn., where she edited submissions, did page layout and design and helped manage the newspaper's website. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Tammy Wolf