The Nexus One (above) is one of the few Android phones capable of running Hulu Plus. Photo: Keith Axline/Wired.com
Finally, Hulu Plus is available on Android smartphones. Six of them, to be exact.
The paid subscription service of the popular online TV site is accessible to only a handful of Android phones, according to a company blog post published Wednesday evening.
?We know that a lot of people want [TV] content on their Android smartphones,? wrote Hulu product manager Rob Wong. ?With the first phase of the Android rollout, Hulu Plus is available on six phones, including the Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X, and the Motorola Atrix.?
Wong says the service will gradually expand to more devices as the year continues.
Android smartphone users who want to watch TV and movies on their devices don?t have it easy. Just last month, Netflix came to the Android platform in a similar fashion, with only five phones able to run the movie-streaming service at launch. Google also launched a movie rental and purchase service.
So why the holdup on devices?
?Generally it?s some kind of porting cost or fee that manufacturers want to get that they?re holding out for,? Gartner mobile analyst Ken Dulaney told Wired.com. This may involve an update to the phone?s firmware in order to run the application. ?But [companies] usually won?t disclose this.?
Netflix gave a different reason when it launched its app on Android. ?In the absence of standardization? across Android device hardware, wrote Netflix product team member Roma De, ?we have to test each individual handset and launch only on those that can support playback.? So ostensibly, the hold up is legitimate, due to the major task of pushing out an app that can run on the 300-plus different Android devices currently available.
It could also be the result of TV studios worried about theft of content. ?Rooted devices? ? or phones that have been unlocked in order for the user to gain more comprehensive access to their phone ? ?can probably work around the DRM system that they have set up,? Gartner analyst Phillip Redman told Wired.com in a previous interview. DRM (Digital Rights Management) systems control the uses of digital content like that seen on Hulu or Netflix. Essentially, studios don?t want their content stolen with an app that could potentially make copies of the content you?re viewing.
When Netflix?s app dropped, DRM holdups were essentially the reason given for the small release. ?There are requirements we must fulfill in order to obtain content from major studios for our subscribers to enjoy,? Netflix product development manager Greg Peters wrote in a blog post. ?Although we don?t have a common platform security mechanism and DRM, we are able to work with individual handset manufacturers to add content protection to their devices.?
Hulu did not immediately respond to requests for.
Hulu has been available on the iPhone and iPad for close to a year. The service is also available on the XBox, TiVo and the PlayStation 3. This makes more sense, however, because Hulu only has to deal with one or two devices on these platforms, rather than the myriad that exist on Android.
Of course, if you aren?t in the fortunate minority of Android customers that can run Hulu Plus quite yet, you can always run it in your laptop?s browser window. Call us old school.
In other news, Hulu is rumored to be shopping itself around for acquisition; The L.A. Times reported that Yahoo is entertaining an interest in buying the company, and AllThingsD reported that Hulu has hired bankers from Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim partners to shop the site out to potential buyers.
Hulu Plus is free for one month to new customers, and costs 8 bucks a month to continue service past the trial period.
Source: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/hulu-plus-android/
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