Staci D. Kramer at mocoNews tested Hulu Plus, the forthcoming “pay us $10 a month to watch commercials” subscription offering from Hulu, and reports that it’s okay-to-disappointing depending on your needs: “Given that I’m a subscription addict, I was fairly sure I’d wind up keeping it after my free review month. One week in, not so much.” [More]
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Sony Only Restricting Hulu Plus Access During Preview
By 7.7.10
It seemed odd last week that Sony was apparently pulling a Microsoft and planning to make gamers subscribe to its premium service for the privilege of connecting to Hulu Plus. Reports that Sony was making the move were unconfirmed, and it turns out, only half-true. [More]
Microsoft, Sony Charge You Fees On Top Of Fees To Use HuluPlus On Consoles
By 7.1.10
Tech bloggers who dug through some hidden text on Hulu’s page announcing pay service HuluPlus discovered unwelcome news for PS3 owners. The text indicates Sony plans on reserving HuluPlus access for those who sign up for its $50-a-year PlayStation Plus online service. The probable move, for now unconfirmed by Sony, falls in line with Microsoft’s decree that only paying Xbox Live Gold members will be able to access HuluPlus. [More]
Hulu Finally Announces $9.99/Month Pay Service, But You'll Still Have To Watch Ads
By 6.29.10
More than two months after it was reported that Hulu would be launching a premium subscription package, the streaming video service has finally gone public with HuluPlus. [More]
Is Comcast Choking My Bandwidth To Keep Me From Watching Too Much TV Online?
By 6.14.10
Gen fears Comcast is choking his bandwidth because he’s streamed too many TV shows. He keeps getting suspicious messages that say his internet connection has slowed when he tries to watch episodes of Law & Order: SVU. [More]
Would You Pay $9.95/Month For Hulu?
By 4.22.10
After two years of offering free streaming video to its users, a new report says that Hulu is ready to move forward with their plan for charging a subscription fee to access much of the site’s content. [More]
No More Daily Show Or Colbert Report On Hulu
By 3.2.10
The New York Times is reporting that Viacom plans to pull its Comedy Central programming from Hulu next week because it can’t reach an agreement with the video site on compensation. In a post today on its blog, a Hulu executive notes that Hulu was “unable to secure the rights to extend these shows,” and that they’ll be gone as of 11:59 pm PST next Tuesday, March 9th. After that, you can continue watching them on TheDailyShow.com and ColbertNation.com. [More]
Quick, Someone Develop Adblock For Online TV Commercials
By 2.8.10
The ratings company Nielsen–the company you can blame for bad stunt-casting and stupid plot devices during sweeps week–is going to start rolling in data from online viewings of commercials this fall, which means networks will start using online viewing stats to help sell ads this time next year. What this means: if a network uses the new Nielsen rating system, “shows seen online will have to have the same group of commercials that run on TV,” reports AdAge. [More]
Other Cable Companies Are Pissed About The Comcast NBC Merger
By 2.3.10
The Comcast/NBC merger probably sucks for consumers, but it sure as hell sucks for other cable companies. Like, for example, WOW!. They are a smallish cable company that competes with Comcast in Chicagoland and in Detroit. [More]
Consumerist Videodrome #2: The "New Moon" Felons
By 12.7.09
Is loving New Moon a crime? It is, if you accidentally tape it during your sister’s surprise birthday party at the movie theater. Plus, how you will end up paying for Hulu after the Comcast/NBC merger, Oscar Meyer shaved meat, subprime loan gangstas, and a pacifier you might choke on. Now that we have a video show, what should my signoff be? Leave your thoughts in the comments. [More]
Streaming Cable Content: For Comcast Subscribers Only
By 10.24.09
Yesterday’s news that Hulu soon plans to start charging for its service actually came fresh on the heels of Comcast’s announcement that it’s about to officially launch online streaming video for subscribers to both their cable TV and Internet services.
Hulu Will Start Charging For Content Soon
By 10.23.09
As board member Jon Miller forecasted a few months ago, streaming video powerhouse Hulu plans to start charging for content soon. Subscription-based? Pay per use? Nobody knows. What we do know is that the Consumerist community wasn’t fond of the idea back in June. [Entertainment Weekly]
How To Cut The Cable/Satellite Cord And Remain A Couch Potato
By 9.30.09
We’ve written about ways to cancel satellite or cable and still be able to watch a ton of shows before, an spotted this nifty refresher, posted back in June, from the Christian money blog Bible Money Matters.
Hulu May Start Charging For Content
By 6.6.09
Just when free tv on the internet was starting to get good, Hulu board member Jon Miller had to go and talk about subscription fees. Miller, an AOL refugee who’s now squeezing cash out of consumers for News Corp, said last week of subscription fees: “in my opinion the answer could be yes. I don’t see why that shouldn’t happen over time… it seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing.” Charging for content isn’t his only big idea…
Cancel Cable Without Losing Your Favorite Shows
By 2.21.09
Cable is one of the first things you should cut to keep expenses down, but that doesn’t mean you should ditch your favorite shows. J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly cut his cable bill from $65.82 to $11.30 without missing a single harrowing plot twist. Here’s how he did it…
Comcast: Watch 3,000 Hours Of TV On Our New Website
By 1.8.08
Comcast has set up a site called Fancast.com where viewers can watch more than 3,000 hours of television shows from NBC, Fox, CBS and MTV and where they will soon be able to remotely program the digital video recorders in their homes. The shows on Fancast are available free. Comcast has yet to say how it will price the rest of the content as its plan moves forward.
