Hulu considering pay-for option

Hulu bans anonymity and might start charging. Ouch!
Hulu bans anonymity and might start charging. Ouch!

Premium video-sharing site Hulu is considering charging for some of its content, in a bid to generate more money.

The website, co-owned by three of the four big broadcasters in America – News Corp, NBC Universal and Disney – has announced that a subscription model could happen, where paying subscribers to the site will benefit from exclusive content.

It was News Corp's Jonathan Miller who spilled the beans when asked about a subscription model, explaining to The Hollywood Reporter: "in my opinion the answer could be yes.

"I don't see why over time that shouldn't happen. I don't think it's on the agenda for Monday [but] it seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing."

Anonymous users blocked

It has also been announced that Hulu has also tightened its belt when it comes to people outside of the US logging into its site through anonymous proxies.

Currently, Hulu is only available in America and although a UK version is very much on the cards, the website currently blocks non-US IP addressed from viewing content.

A number of savvy web users have been using a server proxy workaround to mask their IP address and log on to the site.

Hulu has now tweaked its detection methods further to block this loophole. Instead of seeing premium content, non-US based viewers will now get the message: "Based on your IP address, we noticed you are trying to access Hulu through an anonymous proxy tool. Hulu is not currently available outside the US.

"If you're in the US, you'll need to disable your anonymiser to access videos on Hulu."

Via Daily Finance and TechCrunch

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.