Hulu Announces iOS Compatible Paid Service

Don’t worry everyone, your Hulu is not going away. Rather, the company has announced an additional service, called “Hulu Plus“, which will set you back $9.99 a month. Regular Hulu is staying as it is, but Hulu Plus gives you access to a much larger back catalog of titles and episodes — rather than just the most recent few. In addition, it will stream to the iPhone or iPad, over Wi-Fi or 3G. It’s on the way to PS3, XBox 360, and a number of other devices.

Hulu says:

Hulu Plus is not a replacement for Hulu.com. Hulu Plus is a new, revolutionary ad-supported subscription product that is incremental and complementary to the existing Hulu service. For almost all of the current broadcast shows on our service, Hulu Plus offers the full season. Every single episode of the current season will be available, not just a handful of trailing episodes. Now there’s never a bad time to jump in on a hot new show like Modern Family (which I recommend highly). From Family Guy to Glee, from The Office to 30 Rock, from Grey’s Anatomy to Desperate Housewives, from Parks & Recreation to Parenthood, from House to Saturday Night Live, and dozens of other hits, the best time to jump in on any series is any time, and with any episode, that’s right for you.

As a Hulu Plus subscriber, you’ll now also have access to back seasons or full runs of some of TV’s greatest shows. All nine seasons of The X-Files. All three seasons of Arrested Development. Ten seasons of Law and Order: SVU. All five seasons of Ally McBeal. Seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and three seasons of Roswell. Every episode ever of Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. Classic skits from the first five and most recent five seasons of Saturday Night Live. The list goes on. This is all on top of hundreds of shows already on Hulu.com today. It’s a treasure chest in the cloud for TV lovers.

In my mind, this is now competing with Netflix for my monthly entertainment budget, for on-demand content.

If you want to get in on the program, you can request an invite here.

[via NYT]