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Hulu retains international ambitions Ad-funded US online video service Hulu still plans to take its wares to the international market, following the launch of subscription service Hulu Plus in the States last week. Hulu, a joint venture between NBC Universal, News Corp and Disney-ABC, has been seeking to expand internationally for some time and came close to tying up an agreement with UK broadcaster ITV earlier this year. The deal broke down when ITV decided it wanted to work on its catch-up TV services alone. Last week, Hulu, which carries programmes such as Glee and Family Guy, launched Hulu Plus, a premium content subscription service that offers back episodes of series such as Arrested Development and Family Guy for US$9.99 month. It is being rolled out on the iPad, iPhone and third-generation iPod Touch, with carriage on Samsung connected TVs and Blu-Ray players. Hulu is also aiming to put the service on games consoles such as the Xbox and PlayStation 3. Jason Kilar, the JV's CEO, told London's Financial Times he was confident Hulu Plus could be launched internationally, adding: "We won't be satisfied until this is a global sevice." Japan and the UK are understood to be priorities. Kilar added that Hulu was not in competition with US cablenets that offer premium content, such as HBO. "It is inaccurate to consider Hulu as a substitute for cable or pay-TV services," he said. "We want to make sure that our focus is on serving an unmet need with broadcast content." Take-up of Hulu Plus has been good, attracting "thousands" of subscribers, according to reports in the US. But customers have complained about paying for a service that still contains pre-roll advertising and commercial breaks. Jesse Whittock 12 Jul 2010 © C21 Media 2010 
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