Apple already has a Hulu Plus app up and running on Apple TV but may be delaying its launch due to concerns it will compete with iTunes TV Show sales, according to 9to5Mac. Their sources claim the Hulu Plus for Apple TV is now feature complete and ready for release, and has supposedly been ready for release for over a month. The reason for the hold is thought to be political and not related to any technical issues.

While Apple TV 2 has had Netflix since launch, their content is mainly older, catalog shows, not the new releases that are more profitable for iTunes.

Hulu Plus is already available on iOS, and in HD on a few other set top boxes such as the Roku and the Western Digital TV Live. It would make so much sense to have it available on the Apple TV too.

Source: 9to5Mac

Two sources familiar with the auction are reporting to Bloomberg that Apple is considering a bid to purchase the Hulu service. This isn't too hard to believe considering Apple has $76.2 billion in cash and securities.

Hulu is already a competitor to Netflix but if Apple does make an offer, this may give Netflix an even larger run for its money. Especially after Netflix's recent pricing change, which angered a lot of its customers.

When asked, neither a Hulu or Apple representative would comment. If Apple does acquire the service, it would be interesting to see how that would affect the Netflix streaming currently offered natively for AppleTV users.

Would they simply kick Netflix out and replace it with Hulu? I can't speak for everyone but given Netflix's new pricing plans, I think I'd be okay with that...

Bloomberg

The LA Times is reporting that Google is in preliminary talks to acquire none other than Hulu. The information comes from anonymous sources close to the situation. Google is supposedly interested in buying Hulu due to the huge potential for advertising revenue. The report also claims that Google will face stiff competition from Yahoo and Microsoft.

Hulu has content from a number of current TV shows and has apps available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that are based on a monthly subscription model, though it is currently US only.

If Google does buy Hulu,maybe it would even improve things? Google does tend to give content away for free in return for a user’s personal data!

[Los Angeles Times via Android Central]

Hulu+ has been updated for the iPad and iPhone to includes new features and better yet -- a new, lower subscription price of $7.99.

• New split-screen player on iPad
• Enhanced queue and subscription management
• Improved playback performance
• New thumbnail behavior on iPad
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hulu launched on iOS back in late June followed by an immediate follow up of the Hulu+ subscription service at $9.99.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the update supports Apple's new iOS 4.2 AirPlay feature (yet?)

Let us know how the update is working for you and what you think of the new pricing -- does it hit the sweet spot yet?

[iTunes]

Update: The Hulu Plus application [iTunes Link - Free] is now available within the App Store. We viewed some of the free content on a iPhone 4 over AT&T's 3G network and it streamed flawlessly.

Today that rumor of Hulu introducing a premium paid service has come true as they have officially announced Hulu Plus. It will run you a cool $9.99/month and that will give you streaming access - via Wi-Fi or 3G - to entire seasons of shows that are already available on the free web service along with other programming that is not available on Hulu's website. And the good news is it's just not for iPads but rather every device in the iOS family - iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. There will also be future support for a countless number of other devices such as the Playstation 3 (July) and Xbox 360 (2011). If this sounds like your cup of tea be sure to sign up for the preview invite here.

How many of you are getting ready to do away with your cable or satellite TV service?

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9to5Mac believes Hulu is coming to the iPad (and Android), with testing to begin as soon as May 24. This comes on the heels of a LA Times article that reveals Hulu's plans to offer a $9.95/month subscription option, granting access to their back catalog of TV show.

Netflix and ABC.com are already in the iPad app store, and CBS.com and others are testing or offering HTML5 videos for the iPad over the web. So what's taking Hulu so long?

[Image credit: Twentieth Century Fox and Imagine Entertainment, via LA Times.]

In that stream of 700 iPad apps revealed last night, Engadget noticed a few gems including Netflix and ABC, and with CBS doing the HTML5-video thing and Hulu once again being rumored, could content consumption nirvana finally be near?

Netflix is said to be a free app that will be ready by the April 3 iPad launch. You'll be able to browse and manage your queue and stream movies and TV shows right to your iPad. No word on weather its Wi-Fi-only or 3G as well, and no word on whether an iPhone and iPod touch version is coming (ahem!)

ABC's player is also said to be free but Wi-Fi bound. You'll still get your Lost and Grey's Anatomy fix direct from the network, however. Whether it will make into the iPad App Store by launch day is unknown, as is their monetization method (i.e. will there be commercials?)

CBS, according to the Wall Street Journal, is sticking with their web-based strategy of streaming HTML5 video through Mobile Safari and not making a dedicated app. Hey, maybe that at least will give iPhone and iPod touch owners equal access?

Hulu, which carries the last two remaining networks, NBC and FOX is still unclear but the New York Times once again gets our hopes up. It's not all rosy, however, as the network nuts behind the scenes reportedly aren't happy with revenue and want something like subscriptions bolted one. They better get their act together and quickly or their old world thinking will condemn the bright boys and girls at Hulu to last place in the brave new mobile media world...

MediaMemo is hearing from "multiple people familiar with the company" that the networks behind Hulu, NBC, FOX, and ABC, are still contemplating a version of Hulu for Apple's iPad -- but as a subscription service.

The problem is figuring out a way to keep the existing site free while adding new bells and whistles that consumers pay for. One idea the company and its backers like: Turning Hulu from a “one screen” service–one you’re only supposed to watch on your computer–to a “three screen” offering by adding support for TVs and mobile devices.

The "problem" is Big Media still thinks it's 1960 and fails to show any understanding or imagination when it comes to re-invisioning themselves for 2010's mobile, portable, ubiquitously connected culture.

But whatever. Would you pay a subscription to get a premium version of Hulu on your iPad?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, according to Adobe 7 million iPhone and iPod touch users attempted to download Flash in December, well over the 3 million who tried back in June. We wonder how many of those were for Hulu, and whether rumors of a Hulu app for iPad would change them significantly?

Engadget feels that both Apple and Adobe's competition (competing smartphone platforms that will soon include Flash 10.1, and competing video and rich-content delivery systems from HTML5 to Silverlight which now streams H.264 to the iPhone) are the only ones who will benefit.

We figure technology might as well, as Flash is forced to make less resource intensive, more security and privacy-friendly plugins and Apple and others are forced to make and push alternatives.

Case in point, Hulu. Techcrunch and 9to5mac hear a a Hulu app might still be in progress and set to launch in March in time for the iPad. Their videos are already H.264 so no conversion is required, but they make money off their advertising, which is entirely Flash-based now, and would need to either be replaced with HTML5 for a web app, or Cocoa touch for a native App Store app.

Either way, we're still waiting..

TheFlashBlog's Lee Brimelow, Platform Evangelist at Adobe "focusing on the Flash, Flex, and AIR developer communities" has put up a series of iPad mockups highlighting a wide range of web sites all showing the blue lego brick of Flash plugin fail -- and they feature the range of games like Farmville, news sites like CNN, TV sites like Hulu, and online porn like... well, you get the idea.

In all fairness porn is underplayed compared to the rest, but that it's played at all by someone from Adobe is -- forgive us -- a ballsy move. Of course easy to access, free, online porn is a major reason a certain segment is upset there's no Flash on the iPhone or iPad. Regardless of your personal feelings one way or another about it, porn is historically a huge early adapter of technology, including VHS, DVD, online video -- now increasingly Flash-based -- and even the iPhone via Jailbreak and web apps.

Brimelow is using the visuals, mainstream and adult alike, to point out how ubiquitous Flash is on the 'net, and how Apple shouldn't be calling the iPad (and previously the iPhone), the ultimate browsing experience" when it doesn't include Flash.

That's a valid point, and one Adobe's Photoshop Product Manager John Nack addresses candidly and, in our opinion more convincingly, on his own blog. He made me rethink some preconceptions, so it's well worth a read.

But Apple isn't aiming the iPhone or iPad at the web, or computing, as it is today. They're attempting to reframe their mobile devices as appliances for tomorrow. Yesterday's web was all about Internet Explorer 6 and Microsoft's proprietary ActiveX platform. Today is about Flash. We've moved passed IE6 and ActiveX, and Apple is betting we're moving past Flash as well.

The porn industry, interestingly, will likely be one of the early indicators on whether that ends up being true or not. Along with sites like Hulu, Brimelow's post might just end up being less an inditement of Apple today, but a checkbox for HTML5 conversion tomorrow.

As to gaming, Gruber's right. How would Flash games written for a mouse and keyboard on an iPad -- or iPhone -- anyway? They'd need to convert them for multitouch and fingers anyway, and then why not make an app that fully leverages the hardware?

[Via Daring Fireball]

Maybe, in that news of Disney joining up with Hulu to offer even more free, advertising supported television and movie content via the web, could reduce the amount of people in the US who choose to pay for that same content, ad-free for rental or purchase via iTunes. However, there are some other factors involved that Business Week isn't addressing:

• Hulu is only currently available in the US. iTunes TV and movies are available in Canada, the UK, Australia, and most recently Germany.
• Streaming content such as Hulu is a great option, but not always the best option for every situation. Being able to download, store locally, and watch or take content on the go to watch is still important. (And will remain so until the Internet is as ubiquitous and transparent as electricity).

Most importantly, however:

• Apple has repeatedly stated that they operate the iTunes store at break-even levels just to get people to buy more iPods and now iPhones. Whether that's semi-disingenuous or not, the iPhone will eventually be able to play Hulu content as well -- either directly off the web like YouTube or via a 3rd party Hulu offering in the App Store. More reason to buy iPhones and iPod touches.

If nothing else, Apple has proven to have some small insight into where the "fat middle" of consumerism. They don't blaze trails, they don't bleed edges, but they wait and see and when they feel a market is mature, they offer their take on it.

Our bet is we see that Hulu app... whether AT&T allows it or not is another matter...

Rumor is that Hulu is working on a application that will be available in the App Store sometime in the near future. Silicon Alley Insider has learned about it from a "plugged-in industry executive" and it is said that the application itself will be as slick as Hulu's website and it will work on 3G as well as WiFi. Judging from the popularity of Hulu and their really cool commercials, this app could be a huge hit.

This app coming to the App Store may seem a bit hard to believe at the moment based on the whole ordeal with SlingPlayer. Although, there are other apps within the App Store, such as i.TV, that actually stream video, granted the quality is poor. But full length TV shows and movies? Unfortunately, whatever is holding up SlingPlayer from becoming available still remains a mystery. Whatever the case may be, what are the chances of this Hulu app seeing the light of day? And what are the chances AT&T will really let it stream over 3G?

[Via Silicon Alley Insider]