CBS in Talks With Hulu, TVs to Soon Be Obsolete

Hey everyone! Sorry we’ve been a little quiet here at TUiW this week, Jonah and I were locked in an epic 11 hour tennis match. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming:

A little bit of interesting TV news for you this morning with the news that CBS, Viacom, and Time Warner are in talks with Hulu to add programming to a long rumored subscription service on the website. The proposed subscription service, which c could start testing as early as this month, would be available for $10 a month, and would reportedly supplement the free content on the website, giving subscribers access to old episodes, presumably without ads. Subscribers would also be able to watch Hulu though an iPad app. CBS shows have previously not been available on Hulu, instead appearing on the unreliable and poorly run CBS website. Hulu is a joint venture between NBC, ABC, and Fox, but the site was once home to Viacom’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. When both were taken off the site in April, Hulu’s viewers left as well. With the possible addition of CBS, the site would have programming from all four networks, as well as several basic cable channels. Should Time Warner and Viacom join as well, many of the popular cable shows from TNT, TBS, MTV, and Comedy Central could be featured on the site

I think it’s easy to scoff at the idea of paying for shows available for free on network television, but a subscription service to Hulu could really revolutionize television. In the era of DVR, plenty of people either record their favorite shows or wait for them to appear on DVD to avoid commercials and/or to watch them at their leisure. A subscription service to Hulu could allow the networks to make up for the falling ad revenue, which could help shows with lower ratings stay on the air. Truthfully, the $9.95 per month rumored fee would also be pretty close to Netflix’s $8.99 for instant streaming, which has also been very popular. Hulu Plus, as it’s rumored to be called, could really be a huge boon to network television.

What are your thoughts on Hulu Plus? Would you sign up for a subscription?