No more rumors or idle chatter, Hulu has finally taken the wraps off its subscription online video plan, dubbed Hulu Plus.
For $10 per month, Hulu Plus will offer archived seasons of its existing shows. For example, the entire series of The X-Files and Arrested Development will be available, as will the first five and most recent five seasons of Saturday Night Live. Hulu's not adding any new programming right now, nor is it locking away episodes of current seasons, as previously rumored.
If you want to watch Hulu on devices other than a PC without workarounds such as PlayOn or a VGA cable, you'll need Hulu Plus. It's really this delivery that makes Hulu Plus worth considering, not the content itself. So far the list of supported devices is small, consisting of Samsung's Web-connected TVs and Blu-ray players and Apple's iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Playstation 3 support is coming in July according to Destructoid, and to Xbox 360 in early 2011. To support the new formats, Hulu Plus will stream all native HD content in 720p.
Hulu is still available only in the United States, but chief executive Jason Kilar said in a blog post that support for more countries is on the way, as is a greater selection of television shows.
For now, Hulu Plus subscriptions are going out by invitation, and you can request one here. There's a greater chance of getting in by following the site on Twitter or "liking" it on Facebook.
Personally, I don't like Hulu Plus enough to sign on yet. Game console support is a must for me, and content-wise, there needs to be more shows, not just back episodes of existing ones. It's great that Kilar laid Hulu's cards on the table -- the rumors were getting stale -- but the package doesn't seem complete. Still, the strategy of getting onto as many devices as possible works wonderfully for Netflix, and it's fine time Hulu followed suit.
