Hulu Plus hits 1.5 million subscribers

While Netflix struggled to with disgruntled subscribers after a series of missteps during late 2011, Hulu has continued to quietly grow the Hulu Plus subscriber base.

Mentioned within an official Hulu blog post by CEO Jason Kilar, Hulu has gained over 1.5 million premium subscribers to the Hulu Plus service. This brings Hulu in line with the same amount of premium subscriber as DVR service TiVo according to SplatF’s Dan Frommer, but still lags far behind the 25 million Netflix subscribers.

Both Hulu Plus and Netflix’s streaming-only package are priced at $7.99 per month for each service. During 2011, approximately one million people started subscribing to Hulu Plus, a service that officially launched at the end of 2010. The company also brought in about $420 million in revenue during 2011, an increase of approximately $150 million over the previous year.

Hulu hopes to continue growing its advertising business as well as premium subscriptions over 2012. If growth continues at the current rate, Hulu is likely to collect nearly $200 million in premium subscription fees during the next twelve months. According to the blog, Hulu Plus is currently available on an install base of 200 million Web-connected devices including game consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Smart HDTVs, set-top box solutions like the Roku 2, Blu-ray players and mobile devices like the Apple iPhone 4S and the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Kilar also stressed that the streaming video company grew the content library by 105 percent over 2011, an increase of 40 percent compared to growth during 2010. Major network shows mentioned in the blog post that were added during 2011 included “Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Misfits, Revenge, Terra Nova, Up All Night, New Girl, Una Familia Con Suerte, The Secret Circle, Hart of Dixie, Ringer and Community.” Hulu officials also have plans to invest an additional half a billion dollars in content over 2012. Kilar believes that Hulu is a more attractive option to content providers as Hulu is able to pay approximately 50 percent more in licensing fees due to the joint premium subscription and advertising based business model.  Courtesy | Digitrend