A News Corp executive reckons that the days of Hulu's totally free online TV content will be over, probably starting next year.
“It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online,” said News Corp Deputy Chairman Chase Carey, according to Broadcast & Cable. Carey was speaking at B&C's OnScreen summit, when he said that Hulu's business model has to change. "Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business," he said.
This isn't the first time we've heard chatter about a paid business model for Hulu. In June, News Corp's digital initiatives chief executive Jon Miller said the site should either add a fee-based service or move entirely to a subscription model.
Carey's comments are of a similar nature. He acknowledged that throwing a paywall up in front of the whole site won't do much good, but said that fees could be demanded for specially created content or TV previews. The idea of charging for a mobile version of Hulu was also mentioned.
I'm not opposed to the idea of paid content on Hulu. I would love to pay for a subscription to some of my favorite Showtime and HBO shows, though I have a feeling a move like that would draw friction from cable networks. My worry is that Hulu will take on the same sense of entitlement that's caused News Corp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch to call for paid online print content.
The problem is that you can't give users something for free and then take it away because you suddenly feel that it deserves money. Hulu needs to do more than that. It needs to offer content that you can't currently get online, or a delivery method that's so superior that it's worth paying for. I hope that's what Carey was talking about, and not simply making Hulu less accessible in hopes of extracting a few dollars from viewers.
