Monday, September 5, 2011

Netflix vs. Hulu Plus: And the Winner is...

If you haven't heard, Netflix recently raised their subscriptions prices (Click Here for details from the Huffington Post). In the past you can get a Blu Ray sent to your home and Unlimited Streaming from $12 a month. This was awesome for me because what ever I couldn't get streaming I got on disc.
This month, Netflix changed their subscription plans. Now unlimited streaming option and the BluRay disc option are $8 a piece. So now that Netflix and Hulu Plus are on equal footing price wise, I sat down on my iPad and played around with both streaming services.
To get the B.S. out of the way Netflix is the winner...for now. Why you my ask?

What Netflix has that Hulu does not have...

  • Neflix has no commercials! Hulu has commercials before, during, and after your show or movie.  
  • Netflix has more content than Hulu. This may change if Starz does not renew it's contract in February. (Click Here for details from the Huffington Post.) This is where the "for now" comes in. I will come back to that at the end of the blog. Some examples of Netflix exclusive content are:
    • Every single Star Trek Series, select DC movies (Batman cartoons, Superman), The entire Marvel Comic Books Cartoon Catalog, BBC shows like Doctor Who and Torchwood, Disney movies like "Toy Story 3" and "Princess and the Frog", weird cult classics like UHF, "Hobo with a Shotgun", and "The Human Centipede"
  • All Netflix content can be streamed via App to your iPad and video gam e console. Some content is limited to the web on Hulu Plus.  
Hulu does have some things to toot it's horn about as well:
  • Current shows such as Bones, 30 Rock, Teen Wolf, Hell's Kitchen, Jersey Shore, Ugly Betty, Naruto, Tosh.O and Ugly Americans are updated to the latest episodes:
    • Hulu has partnerships with Fox, Walt Disney, NBC Universal which keeps these going. 
  • You can view clips of shows i.e. SNL skits instead of trying to watch and cycle through an entire episode for. 
As I stated earlier, Netflix is the winner for now because it has more content and no commercials.  Netflix can't renew it's deal with the Starz Network, they are going to lose content like all the Disney movies and BBC shows come February 28th. 
We live in an interesting time. We are seeing less and less Blockbuster stores and more Redbox kiosks popping up. We have Comcast/Xfinity letting you stream selective content as well or you can buy a-la-carte from the iTunes store. There are even rumors that Yahoo is buying Hulu (Click Here For Details from Mashable.com). It will be very interesting to see who wins in the next five years. Let your dollars do the voting. 

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