Hulu will soon allow anyone in the US to watch a selection of its programming via mobile devices, CEO Mike Hopkins said at the company’s Upfronts event today.
Hulu previously required you to sign up for its premium subscription service, Hulu Plus, which costs $8 per month, before gaining access to any of its programming on smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, and other supported streaming devices. But that’s about to change, which is probably due to the growing volume of people consuming video content on mobile devices.
The additional mobile content should come this summer along with an updated version of Hulu’s mobile apps for Android and iOS, the company said.
Hopkins added that the company is still working on licensing deals with some of the TV networks on bringing content to mobile devices without a paid subscription.
The move will hopefully expand what’s currently available to regular Hulu users on mobile, which means adding full episodes of TV shows rather than just extended clips.
That said, it seems unlikely that users will be able to access the full breadth of free, ad-supported content that’s available through Hulu’s desktop website. Still, there should be a decent selection.
Hulu also announced that it has surpassed six million paid subscribers to its service. For perspective, Netflix recently reported 44 million customers, albeit without revenue from advertising during content streaming.