Hulu Plus app tweaked oh-so-slightly to comply with Apple rules

Hulu made a subtle change to its iPad app this weekend, cutting off that bottom line you can see in the screenshot above. Yes, per Apple's rules on charging for in-app subscriptions, Hulu can't actually link to its own site to promote its own subscription service for video streaming of TV episodes, movies and such.

Apple's rules say either no links whatsoever to outside subscription signups, or both in-app subscriptions (which means a flat 30% goes to Apple directly) and offsite links. Since Hulu doesn't want to give any cut to Apple, the choice has apparently been made to simply offer the app as a service itself, rather than an ad for the site subscription.

Will this affect Hulu's sales? Probably not too much -- I'd assume that most Hulu users are already subscribers, or at least know about the option already. Clearly the company determined it was more important to get the app out there than to worry about using it as an advertising tool.

We'll have to wait and see how (or if -- some companies have already confirmed that they won't be dealing with in-app subscriptions at all) other subscription services handle Apple's restrictions.

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Source: http://allthingsd.com/20110620/hulu-plays-along-with-apples-…

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Hulu made a subtle change to its iPad app this weekend, cutting off that bottom line you can see in the screenshot above. Yes, per...

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erics2008

I have a lot of issues with Hulu Plus. The biggest is the idea of "web-only" content. I don't want to watch TV at my computer. 99% of my Netflix use is on my iPhone or Apple TV (or Xbox 360, to a lesser extent), but when I'm using Hulu Plus (on Xbox or iPhone), it seems like most of what I want to watch is web-only.

There are a lot of streaming issues with Hulu, also. I have a very fast connection (30Mbps at night, when I do most of my watching), but videos are often stopped halfway or play in standard definition instead of HD. Netflix works fine.

They also need to get all of their content under the same license - Viacom content, for instance, appears 21 days after it airs, so I'm three weeks behind on Tosh.0. They advertised "complete back seasons" of series as a major feature last year when it launched, but shows from USA Network and others that are owned by NBC/Universal (Hulu's parent company) only have the last five episodes.

June 20 2011 at 8:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

gbuell

Usually I am fine with Apple's business decisions, but this particular issue is particularly boneheaded, and leads to worse customer experience. I'm glad Apple let up a little bit recently, but they really need to just let people put whatever links they want in their apps.

June 20 2011 at 3:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dan Knowles

Hulu plus as a service is fairly underwhelming due to what I can only assume are licensing issues. I tried the service free and cancelled it well before the trial time was up. Its a wonder anyone uses Hulu + at all given the availability of the more robust Hulu online, or Netflix as a content option.

June 20 2011 at 3:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply