They shouldn't be surprised to see that the app has been downloaded a lot more than the number of actual subscribers they get. People want this service, they just don't want it in this current form.

Hulu has gotten itself into a hock and a hard place. While they set the stranded for video playback in quality and content, they did it with a limited ads format, while this worked, and worked very well, It set consumer expectations very high. Which is good, but now, they want to start adding in more ads, consumers will not like that. Soon it will become too much like traditional commercial tv. Viewers will be at the least annoyed, and many will leave to find other venues that have the same content with as few or less ads, or even back to the bit torrents.

I suspect that there may also be a huge number that try the paid version and as soon as they find theres ads, drop it, That should be a interesting number.

Netflicks had this beat by a huge factor. As for me, my personal interest is in seeing classic tv, and generally little new content. Netflicks works very well.
Hulu Plus with ads is not a value ad in any sense of the words.
If one see limited ads in the free version, one should see NO ads in the paid version, Thats it. If I pay for content I expect there should be no ads. Thats what I'm i'm paying for the privilege to see content with no ads.

This not even counting the platform advantage that Netflicks has, I can watch Netflicks on anything from my laptop, to a host of boxes from Roku, to Boxee, and through a variety of dvd.blu-ray players, now even a number of net connected tvs directly.
In that respect Hulu is still holding on the the more traditional model of trying to control their content as much as possible. Much like the publishing indusrtsy is still trying to understand that they aren't just publishing books anymore , they're publishing content, Hulu is not just publishing shows, they are pushing content that should be available on a huge number of platforms to get more eyes on their ads, Then, maybe the Hulu Plus would start to make sense.

Hulus Plus, with ads;
No Thank You,
And probably not even with no ads either,,,

Ken Lawson

It's pretty simple really - everyone can accept the need for ads in the free version, BUT there should be NO ads in the paid version - isn't that the point in having a paid version to start with??
Listen up execs - GREEDY, GREEDY, GREEDY doesn't pay in the long run...

Rather than make the choice, why doesn't Hulu just offer a premium service without the commercials for $N more, and let the market decide which one is more popular?

Obviously, the chosen subscription fee is not adequate to make the service sufficiently profitable without ads. If you suggest they get rid of the ads, then you need to weigh that against a e.g. $15 subscription fee. Perhaps there needs to be a range of choices.

Doing a ad free pay model with possible value added extra, is the way to go, set it high enough so it pays for itself, of course the higher they set it the more extras they need to attract viewers. Then let it play itself out and sink or swim,,
Getting into tried pricing get complicated both for them and the consumers. They need to keep it simple for both.

Ken Lawson

Will, it's easy to forget, but Hulu is clearly not like other start-up video services -- they were not proactively launched to target a consumer market opportunity. Their business plan essentially breaks all the marketing rules.

The decision to launch Hulu was a direct result of the U.S. TV network's reactive response to concerns that online video adoption would fragment the once captive mainstream legacy TV viewing audience. It's not a customer-centric model, so you can't assess their actions from that point of view.

From the beginning, the traditional big-media owners of Hulu have challenged the small company's leadership team to do the unthinkable -- implement a strategy that's counter-intuitive to a savvy marketer who is skilled in serving customer needs.

Therefore, while I can only imagine how this scenario played out, I'd guess that when Hulu's CEO gave the TV networks the options for evolving the business model the one they chose was not on his list -- that being, all of the above. "Let's have forced advertising and also charge a subscription fee."

We would rather pay another five to ten bucks a month to netflix and have them add to their content.

We are going to use nexflix, plus download new shows onto Tivo DVR disks, so we can skip ads as we choose while watching on our lap tops. We will pay for netflix and what it takes to get Tivo recorded, rather than have their ads shoved down our throats.

What sites are available other than hulu?
Please post other known sites if possible.

I know hulu has a nice set up, but the new way they force commercials is so annoying. (example: if you watch the commercial of a segment, then go back to review, they force you to watch another commercial for that segment.)

We feel like everyone already contributes some amount of value by letting them use our information and habits, like this new "is this ad relevant" marketing scam. I find myself determining the value of each segment before I let the commercial begin.

We were hoping to avoid these commercials by paying a monthly fee, but we will NOT pay hulu for commercial viewing.