Hulu Plus now lets you subscribe in the app, and Apple gets a cut of the fee

By Andrew Martonik
last updated

Hulu now finally lets users sign up for its paid Hulu Plus service inside its iPhone and iPad app, marking a truce between the media company and Apple over in-app billing. Prior to now, you had to sign up for Hulu Plus from the web and then sign into your premium account in the app, thus getting around Apple's policy of taking a percentage of all in-app billing activity. If you didn't sign up separately, you only had access to some free content in the app.

Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all in-app purchases, even a recurring subscription like the $8 that Hulu charges, so it's somewhat understandable that it wanted to get around that structure. In the end this new move to allow in-app sign-ups for Hulu Plus is likely a net positive — we're guessing that the boost in sign-ups will make up for the $2.40 per user per month it'll be paying Apple.

Source: GigaOM

Andrew Martonik
Andrew Martonik

Keeping you up to date with mobile news and analysis since 1989.

11 Comments
  • I think you misspelled "unconditional surrender"
  • "In the end this new move to allow in-app sign-ups for Hulu Plus is likely a net positive — we're guessing that the boost in sign-ups will make up for the $2.40 per user per month it'll be paying Apple." You can bet it is. They must realize they are leaving money on the table. Glad they realize that customer convenience is worth something. Sent from the iMore App
  • If you are paying for HuluPlus, you are a moron. I have had HuluPlus for free for the past 2 years. Bing rewards for the win!(Thank you Microsoft!) So with that knowledge, why would anyone pay Apple for anything?
  • How did you get that?? Sent from the iMore App
  • If you live in the US, you can sign up for Bing Rewards (via Microsoft account and/or Facebook), and then receive reward credits that you can redeem for stuff like Microsoft, Amazon, Dominos, and IHOP gift cards, plus sweepstakes entries. You are indeed limited to how many credits you can earn per day, but it's still worth it. You get rewarded for doing something that you already do on a daily basis, why not? While it does still suck on a global scale: Bing is actually really full-featured and accurate in the US, a worthy adversary to Google. It's good enough for Siri, after all. So if you like getting free stuff for doing simple Internet searches: Bing rewards is DEFINITELY worth it. I just claimed $30 in Amazon gift cards this weekend, and I'm always getting free apps for my Lumia 1020 thanks to Microsoft gift cards.
  • I have been getting it for free as well through Bing. It is very easy to get enough points every month. There are other things you can use the points towards, but Hulu+ is the best deal on there. Sent from the iMore App
  • how? lol i want to know
  • Got to love people who drop a comment like that and are never to respond or be heard of again lol Sent from the iMore App
  • Go to http://tinyurl.com/n7basya
    Sign up, do searches, get points and turn them in for Hulu plus
  • It was already possible to subscribe to Hulu Plus from the Apple TV. They must have had a lot of customers because of that and they decided to extend it to iPhones and iPads too. Sent from the iMore App
  • Unless the servers are hosted by Apple, I don't get why I should give Apple a cut. They don't seem to handle the payments/refunds either really.