Get ready to kiss your cable bill goodbye — Hulu Plus is preparing for takeoff.
The on-demand, online, streaming TV Web site’s paid subscription service is likely to begin testing with invited users as early as this week, according to reports.
To get customers to pony up the $10-a-month fee for a service they’re used to getting free, the subscription site is expected to give viewers access to content that was previously unavailable on Hulu.
Bloomberg reported last week that Hulu is in talks with CBS, Viacom and Time Warner’s television studios to host their shows, traditionally only available on the network’s own sites, behind a pay gate. (ABC, Fox and NBC have ownership stakes in Hulu and have posted their shows on the site for free.)
If an agreement is reached, hosting hit shows like “NCIS” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” would help make Hulu Plus a comprehensive site for programming, attracting viewers who don’t want to pay increasingly large cable bills, but are willing to pay a token fee to watch their favorite shows on demand.
Whatever the case, viewers would still need to use a device — like a computer, iPad or gaming console — to stream the Hulu content to their TVs.