Hulu Looking To Charge For Content?

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Popular video sharing site Hulu was founded in 2007 by three big American television networks (NBC, Fox, ABC) to provide a legal, centralized hub for their own content. The site has grown and become an popular site for Americans to watch high quality full episodes of ‘some’ of their favorite shows from the networks. Since then, executives from the three networks have mentioned their desire to charge for Hulu numerous times, and now it appears to becoming.

Although Hulu offers commercial breaks in the video content, the site has been looking for ways to make more money. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (the parent company of the Fox network) is no stranger to charging for internet content. They own the popular financial paper The Wall Street Journal, which has charged for full access to its web site since 2003.

Early last year, News Corp executive Chase Carey told the press that Hulu “needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business,” and NBC executive Marc Graboff said last year that Hulu needed “to turn [its] digital pennies into digital dollars”. Hulu, which streams high-quality HD video content, likely suffers high bandwidth costs, despite its popularity. The networks are likely looking to cash in on Hulu’s popularity.

Graboff mentioned that Hulu is looking to add more adverting (in addition to TV-like 30 minute commercials, the site also offers banner ads, like you’d find on any website), as well as paid subscriptions. Graboff and Carey’s comments caused a small uproar on the internet from loyal Hulu users.

The latest news, a source from Hulu told the Los Angeles Times newspaper that Hulu was looking to offer full back catalogs of shows (commonly, Hulu only offers the previous 5-7 episodes of a show) for a $4.99 monthly subscription fee. A ‘premium mode’ where viewers weren’t subjected to commericals was also rumored.

No word on how this will affect Hulu’s popularity, or possibly if it will help bring the online platform to digital set top boxes like Boxee and Roku.