Hulu users face a new decision for their budget

Many people use a popular Web site called Hulu.com. The site offers network TV shows and movies for free, and may start charging for their service starting next year. Although Hulu doesn’t offer shows from every network, it has a large database of popular shows. Currently an ad-supported site, the owners — News Corp., Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal and Providence Equity Partners — don’t think they are bringing in enough profit. Recent news suggests Hulu may be considering requiring a fee for their service.
Jonathan Miller, News Corp.’s chief digital officer, told Daily Finance that he envisions a future where at least some of the TV shows and movies on Hulu are available to subscribers.
“I don’t see why over time that shouldn’t happen,” Miller said. “ I don’t think it’s on the agenda for Monday but is seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing.”
A hurdle that Hulu faces is losing consumers. Starting to charge for a service that has always been free might turn people off. PC World said they think there are some ways around losing their customers: having a much larger database with more episodes of more shows available, adding Hulu to existing cable packages, offering Hulu exclusives similar to HBO and Showtime, going ad or commercial free, or still having a free service with only limited shows requiring a fee. Hopefully, those perks will make consumers more apt to pay, instead of switching to other video-streaming sites like YouTube or Fancast.
Providing TV shows and movies for free may indicate the quality of the service. Charging for the service might imply that their services are of a higher quality, and therefore, worth the price.
According to Daily Finance, Miller is responsible for trying to get consumers to pay for content produced by all of News Corp.’s properties. Another company owned by News Corp. is The Wall Street Journal. He also discussed different options to get people to supply a fee for articles from the paper that they are already used to getting for free.
Likely, Hulu and The Wall Street Journal won’t be the only things having fees attached that we are used to getting for free.
“It’s unfortunate that we will have to start paying for a service that we are already used to getting for free,” said Stephanie Valencia, a student at Weber State University. “Depending on how much the fee would be, I would consider not using Hulu at all.”
This may be the response most Hulu consumers have. If they do decide to start requiring a fee, Hulu users will have a big decision to make.