Hulu’s Free Days Are Numbered, To Go With Subscription Based Service in 2010

By now it’s already made the newswires across the internet, but Hulu, the free video service, is planning to go with a subscription model. I heard the news last night as I was watching the baseball game on FOX and couldn’t believe that Hulu, already supported through ads, was planning to charge for broadcast television content, which most of have been watching for free since the dawn of television.

Chase Carey, the News Corp. Deputy Chairman, uttered the now famous words, “It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online.” I think Mr. Carey forgot one thing, you already have ads on your videos, ads that pay so that viewers can watch it for free!

Unless Hulu is planning to offer some kind of tiered or ad-free service, Hulu will no longer be what it was good for, giving millions of viewers the chance to watch missed TV shows the following day, up to five missed episodes per show.

One thing is for sure, if Hulu goes with a subscription service but is not ad-free or does not add cable content, I will not be paying for it, and millions of others won’t either.