I can’t find this in the FAQ and I’d ask Hulu, but somehow I think it would actually be faster to ask here.
Why is it that Hulu Plus doesn’t have all the content of the free Hulu in addition to Hulu Pluses paid content?
Moved to Cafe Society from GQ.
samclem, moderator
If you go to the page for a show not available to stream on devices it says that they “don’t have the rights to make this show available on your TV or mobile devices”. My guess is that these are either shows the got the rights to before Hulu Plus, and therefore were only licensed for computer streaming, or are things that the content holders don’t want streaming to people’s TVs for fear of it eating into their ratings.
I’m annoyed that the website isn’t more forthcoming about what you get for your HuluPlus money. You’d think they’d want to provide a premium service for cash; I might pay for additional content and would definitely pay more to be able to skip the ever increasing number of irritating commercials.
That’s the problem. I’m paying for different content, not additional.
I ended up emailing them. I’ll post the response when I get it.
The number of commercials is actually making me consider switching back to real televisions.
Ditto.
My guess: rights issues. Hulu Plus has to work on all types of devices, while regular Hulu only has to be licensed for computer streaming. Before Hulu Plus, people asked about a mobile app, and the excuse was always rights issues.
But I would have hoped that the extra money from Hulu Plus would have allowed them to get a better license for their old stuff, too. Without that, I’m not sure I see the point in getting Hulu Plus. (I mean, the reason we have Netflix is that they had a mobile app, so my sister can watch whenever–or she could before the cell phone companies started this bullshit data capping.)
Whelp, I finally got a response back. Tolja it would be faster to ask on here…
[QUOTE=Hulu]
Thanks for contacting us, and I’m sorry for the frustration. Unfortunately we don’t have the rights to stream every show on your device through Hulu Plus. Our ultimate goal is to offer all of our content on as many devices as possible, but it’ll take some time and cooperation before this becomes a reality.
The rights to stream something to your computer are different from the rights to stream it to your TV, which are again different from the rights to stream it to a mobile device. Content owners are ultimately the ones who decide where their content is shown, and that sometimes means their content might only be available at Hulu.com.
We’re doing everything we can to narrow the gap between what’s only on our site and what’s available through Hulu Plus. Obtaining these additional streaming rights requires a lot of hard work, and negotiations with content owners take time.
If it helps, you’ll always find a full list of Hulu Plus shows at ( Watch Thousands of TV Shows and Movies on Hulu ). We also list whether or not a show is part of Hulu Plus under the Availability Notes on each show’s main page (e.g. Stream Live Sports, News, TV Shows, and Movies | Hulu + Live TV ).
Again, I’m sorry that some shows are web-only for now, but hopefully we’ll be able to add them to Hulu Plus in the future. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.
Thanks,
Chelsea V.
Hulu Support
P.S. Sorry about the delay in getting back to you, we’re normally a lot quicker with our responses.
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I was looking forward to Hulu(Plus) as one of the services on my new Roku. So far, I’m underwhelmed. For one thing, I apparently didn’t follow the correct sequence with the 2-month free service card (there were problems with the sub-web that was supposed to accept the card) and now, having created my Hulu+ account through the regular page, the card is no longer acceptable.
So I have about three more days of the free initial week trial, instead of two months, to make up my mind whether to keep it as a paid service. The help desk has been pleasant but unhelpful; that I couldn’t initiate the account with the 2-month trial because their web site wouldn’t give me the correct page is an “oh, well.”
I really don’t see anything making it worth the same price as Netflix streaming.
No kidding! I did once get a weird ad for Levis with this song, Mademoiselle Noir. If all the commercials were like that, I’d be a lot less irritated by them.
I mainly like Hulu Plus because I can watch it through my Playstation. If I could get free Hulu via my PS3 I might not have it at all. Getting current shows the next day instead of eight days later is a nice plus.
Generally, I find Hulu Plus to be cheap enough that it’s a nice supplement to Netflix. Their movie selection is crap, but at least you can find a list of all available content, unlike Netflex which for whatever reason absolutely will not provide a master list of available streaming content.