Hulu Plus comes out of beta, gets price cut

Hulu’s subscription service – taking the Web-based operation beyond the PC – has moved out of its beta period and is welcoming all who are interested. Hulu Plus officially launches today – and, even better, it’s getting cheaper.

The company has scaled back the $9.99 monthly fee it has charged since late June to $7.99 – and says it will issue refunds for the difference to early adopters who were in the beta. The price cut is a welcome one, but still higher than the $4.99 figure many people were expecting.

All new subscribers will get a free one week trial for the service. And the company is vastly extending the number of supported devices where you’ll be able to watch Hulu Plus.

The list of supported (and soon to be supported) devices now includes:

- Connected TV and Blu-Ray players: Samsung, Sony BRAVIA® HDTVs and connected Blu-ray Disc™ Players, and coming soon: LG Electronics, Panasonic, VIZIO

– Connected Set-top Boxes: Roku, Sony Network Media Player, and coming soon: TiVo Premiere DVRs, Western Digital’s WD TV Live Hub Media Center and WD TV Live Plus Network Media Player

- Gaming Consoles: PlayStation® 3, and coming soon: Xbox 360

- Mobile Devices: Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod touch

- Other network appliances: Sony Dash

Hulu’s promising to continue adding to that list in the coming months and will be adding to its library as well.

We’ve been with Hulu Plus since the beginning (see our impressions here). It’s a promising service – and the price cut is a welcome one – but it still faces an uphill battle against Netflix and users are still likely to be upset to pay both a monthly subscription fee and have to sit through ads in the programming.