Hulu.com: A new way to watch TV (2008)

The $11.99 plan is ad free. It is what I have and it is well worth the extra couple bucks to not have ads.

They also have a full back catalog for a number of shows I watch.

I swapped a NYT login for a Hulu one with a pal, and I've never seen ads. It has a great deal more content compared to other things on the Roku.

I just wish they had an open API so I could use it on Kodi.

i loved hulu, but it did a lot of things to make me leave the platform and not look back.

- I was watching a tv show, they aired the season finally commercial during the show and spoiled the whole season for me.

- they switched to some weird way if viewing shows that increased the clicks to watch a show to 7. I stopped watching for a long period of time

- after returning after several months from being angry about the above, they switched to paid model and deleted my account

Sounds like you're more upset about who owns Hulu than any real experience or issues with it. They've had an ad-free version for quite a while now, and most shows are up immediately after they air and stay up all season.

There are a small handful of exceptions (example: out of all the shows I watch, one of them has a commercial, and it's only a single 15 second one before each episode and one other show only keeps 5 episodes at a time live), but for $12/mo it's still a great value compared to what you'd pay to your cable company.

I happily pay Hulu the $12/month (plus tax) they ask for because it was an improvement over what I had. It pays, even a little something to the people and companies that are creating what I'm watching, it's easier than pirating shows, and I've not watched a single show with a pre- or post-roll advertisement. As for the existence of ads, I'd prefer that if they do exist, they run before and/or after the show. It's the interruption of the story that I don't like.

Frankly, this is the same reason why I pay DirecTV NOW the $35 that they ask for. I get what I'm interested in--with DTVN, it's live TV for the times in a month that I want it--for far less than I was paying and the experience is equivalent or better than what I had before.

For me, it's "just television." I don't hate or love it. It's moving pictures that tell a story or inform or just throw out jokes. Sometimes all three. If I can get a better deal with more flexible access (and I can and have), awesome.

I see many people complaining about ads on premium content, but its so minimal you will hardly ever see it, and if you do its very short, anyways, hasn't bothered me at all. Also, if you haven't looked at it in a while, it has changed a lot too. I alternate between Netflix and Hulu live tv, pretty happy with these services.

The issues I have with Hulu aren't all that different from the issues I have with Netflix. Yes, content is removed without warning, but it is on Netflix too. Yes, there's a delay between a show being broadcast and it showing up on Hulu, but there's a considerably larger gap with Netflix. Neither of these applies to Hulu's own original content, same as it doesn't with Netflix.

All the streaming services, IMO, share the same flaw - they can't provide all the content I want to watch. I really wish we'd ended up in a world where I can just buy the latest episodes of Black Mirror, Handmaid's Tale and Star Trek: Discovery when they come out, rather than have to maintain separate monthly subscriptions for each, but alas. Ironically, I can buy a lot of network show content by the episode on iTunes/Google Play/whatever.

I don’t have cable. I have DirecTVNow. I can get most of the shows I watch on Hulu via DTV, but I still subscripbe to Hulu without commercials because it is a much better experience.

My main problem with Hulu is that it's really only a replacement for terrestrial TV. Most of the stuff I watch on cable isn't available on Hulu. And if I only wanted terrestrial then I live in an area with good reception and can get a commercial free DVR experience for about $400 (2.5 years of Hulu).

My biggest complaint with Hulu is the watermark/bug they add to everything. It is large, unsightly, and can be very bright compared to the actual content. I signed up for Hulu ad-free premium, but dropped it because of the bug.

Broadcast tv, satellite, and cable networks often have a bug show up when a show returns from commercial break. It is somewhat transparent with dulled colors, and often disappears after a short period of time.

Hulu's bug is large, less transparent, bright white, and sticks around for the entire show.

It was pretty bad when watching something with a dark scene - bam - blinding white watermark distracting from the actual content.

>shows commercials even to premium users

I think this idea that businesses are only allowed to have one revenue stream seems a bit strange. Other businesses that are supported by payments and ads include: magazines, cable TV, movie theaters, newspapers, public transit, air travel, and amusement parks. If Hulu thought that people would pay twice as much for ad-free content, then I'm sure they'd offer it.

> The major networks haven't put out as much enticing content in the last few years.

It also doesn't help that Hulu's contracts with several major networks have expired over the years faster than replacement contracts as major networks try to carve out individual streaming apps of their own. Hulu's usefulness as an aggregator is getting questionable, especially with the foray into "Live TV" that certainly seems counter to what I signed up to Hulu for in the first place: cutting the tyranny of TV scheduling as much as possible, while still keeping somewhat water cooler up-to-date versus Netflix binging a full season months after the fact with few to discuss it with (though now everyone's water cooler is getting tuned/reset to Netflix so even that need is disappearing/shifting).

So you don't have cable, but you have hulu, netflix and HBO? What is the difference?

This is the case for most streaming services. Pretty much the only one I've found that works without hacks is Netflix, although their content varies quite a bit from one country to another.

I understand this is due to licensing restrictions but it's pretty annoying all the same. I'd happily pay for Filmstruck, for example, if they'd only let me.

I vaguely do but I seem to recall it was short lived.

Add in Amazon Prime streaming plus acquiring content in other ways. Sure, there’s a market for some number of players but there’s a limit to how many subscriptions any given household will buy.

Yes. Especially if the cable companies lose share drastically, and they should.

They are like all-you-can-eat buffets, only for a few people with big appetite. I also don't like their click-and-bait tactics (you sign up for $80, you end up paying $150 in a year).