Hulu to Launch Paid Subscription Service

As we've reported previously, Hulu is moving forward with a plan to launch a paid subscription service. Reportedly, the service will cost users $9.95 a month. The plan is to continue to offer the 5 most recent episodes of popular shows available on the site for free, but make the older episodes available only to subscribers.

It's a significant move in that Hulu has been profitable for the last two quarters and has made $100 million from advertising in 2009. Still, the co-owners of the service, News Corp., NBC Universal and Disney, want to see how much more they can generate with the new Hulu Plus service. Reports <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/04/hulu-pushes-forward-with-995-subscription-service.html> are that it will be rolled out in the next few weeks.