What is Hulu?
If you wanted to add a new source of content to your movie and TV watching, access Hulu (Hulu.com). Hulu is an online service with a variety of your favorite shows, documentaries, and movies.
Hulu offers a free one week trial with limited access for those who want to try it out. The majority of the shows include commercials, and you can pay extra for a commercial-free experience. Showtime® is also available for all paid plans at an additional cost.
How do I use it?
Hulu requires two things to use it, access to the Internet and a subscription. Go to Hulu (Hulu.com) and subscribe for a free 30-day trial. After the free trial period is up, plans start at $7.99/month, with different prices for other Hulu subscriptions (Hulu Plus).
Once you have a subscription, log on with your username and password, and start using Hulu. While the free trial period limits your viewing to a personal computer, the paid account provides access to your Hulu account on many different types of devices. With any of the paid subscription plans, you can watch videos on your TV (with a supported set-top box), smartphone, tablet, game console and PC (Windows or Mac), with unlimited access to Hulu's library of hit movies, current season episodes, and high definition (HD).
Hulu Plus
Available on TV's and several other connected devices, Hulu Plus is a good choice for subscribers interested in watching current seasons of popular television series and recently released movies. With a library full of episodes, you can log-in to Hulu (Hulu.com) and watch from almost anywhere with internet connection.
To sign-up with Hulu Plus, you must first start your free trial or upgrade at any time from a standard Hulu susbcription. After the 30 days, you can access Hulu Plus by paying $11.99/month. This paid access provides you with a commercial-free experience when watching a video. The only difference between Hulu and Hulu Plus is the upgrade from commercials to having no commercials.
Hulu history
Started in 2006, Hulu signed content deals with NBC Universal, The Walt Disney Corporation (owners of the ABC and ESPN networks), Fox, the CW and Showtime, which made Hulu a useful alternative for people who wanted to watch popular television series without a cable subscription. Shows from these networks (and others) are usually available the day after they air on broadcast TV.
Hulu has started making deals to produce new episodes of canceled series such as The Mindy Project and signed exclusive deals for access to series such as Seinfeld. Hulu also now offers original series only available to subscribers.
To my way of thinking
Hulu's most recent subscriber count announced on May 4, 2016, was 12 million, which grew from 9 million the year before. For comparison, Netflix, the largest Internet content service, has over 70 million subscribers.
Hulu continues to expand production of its own content and sign exclusive content deals as Internet services like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Video becomes more like television and movie studios.
Watching "television" isn't the right term to use anymore, it's watching videos, which could be on your TV set, or could be content from a service like Hulu.
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