We knew it had to happen

The Setting: Currently, you can go to Hulu.com and watch clips and entire episodes of TV shows and some full-length movies. For free.

The videos include ads at the beginning and sprinkled throughout, if they're more than just a clip. Apparently, those ads are not generating enough income for Hulu, because they are considering going to a "fee-based business model" starting next year. That means we would have to pay a subscription fee if we want to watch.

Based on the comments after this blog posting about it, it appears most people have no intention of continuing to use Hulu if the site starts charging, although some people realize there are always costs involved and they are willing to pay for the conveniece Hulu offers. And some people bring up an interesting point: would you rather watch for free but also have to deal with ads or pay a subscription fee and have no ads? Actually, I'm really not sure if Hulu will still have ads after they start charging. Hmm...

Hulu provides the convenience of watching content from various TV stations in one place, but you can typically go to a network's specifc site and watch shows there for free. Well, we'll see next year if viewers are willing to pay for convenience.