Hulu Plus hits 2 million subscribers, report says
Hulu Plus had about 1.5 million subscribers in January, which means it added a half-million folks in the last four months.
Hulu Plus is starting to see stronger growth, according to a new report.
The online streaming service is slated to announce this week that it has hit 2 million paid subscribers for its Hulu Plus service, according to The New York Times.
If that is in fact the case, it would mean that Hulu Plus added 500,000 new subscribers in just the last four months and that its growth is accelerating.
"We grew the business 60 percent from 2010 to approximately $420 million in revenue" in 2011, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said back in January while announcing a milestone of 1.5 million paid subscribers.
That may be impressive, but it's important to point out that Netflix was adding about 1 million subscribers to its streaming service each quarter at its height -- and before it attempted to increase prices on customers.
Still, it's clear that the $8-a-month Hulu Plus service is resonating with customers. The service has a large collection of both current and older television shows, and also lets users stream movies. Hulu Plus is available both on the Web and on a host of devices, including televisions and set-top boxes.
Looking ahead, one of the key elements of the Hulu strategy is original programming. The company currently offers its own original program, "Battleground," which launched in February. The company will also release "Up to Speed," another original series, over the summer.
Now that Hulu has moved into original programming, the Times is reporting that the company will host an "upfront" presentation to advertisers on Thursday. Upfronts have historically been used by networks to pitch advertisers on their upcoming programming, and Hulu has been left out of them since it didn't offer its own content. Now that it does, however, the company gets to play the network game -- something that, when it was founded, seemed rather unlikely, considering it was started by networks.
Simply put, it's a new -- and bigger -- Hulu.
Hulu did not immediately respond to CNET's request for confirmation of the subscriber tally.