Gizmo Download: Hulu Plus Deal with Apple May BeMinue for Pay TV

The Hype: Cord-cutt ers have
a new reason to jett ison pay TV
service for broadband video following Hulu’s
deal to deliver its entertainment-subscription
service through Apple TV set-tops. Hulu Plus
offers every episode from current seasons on
broadcast networks including ABC, NBC, Fox,
The CW and Univision, and other content available
across a range of devices.

What It Means: For Apple, Hulu Plus adds
another enticement for consumers to buy the
$99 box, which already provides access to Netflix, YouTube and other over-the-top services.
Hulu, owned by NBCUniversal, News Corp. and
Walt Disney Co., evidently
concluded that giving Apple
a cut of its $7.99 monthly fee
was the price it had to pay to
gain access to the increasingly
popular connected-TV platform.
While the Hulu option
likely will eat into iTunes electronic
sell-through revenue, most TV episodes
Apple sells are from cable networks — which
are largely unavailable in the Hulu domain.


Pricing and Availability: Users can subscribe
to Hulu Plus online or via an Apple TV
set-top using an existing iTunes account. After
a free one-week trial, the service is $7.99 per
month.