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Hulu Plus now on Windows Phone 8

May 6th, 2013 by Karan Nischol Product Manager

At Hulu, we obsess over making TV viewing delightful and convenient to our users: When they want it, where they want it and how they want it. Carrying that story forward is Hulu Plus for Windows Phone 8, something we are very excited to introduce to our Windows users.

Our team has been focused on creating a beautiful and comprehensive Hulu Plus experience that is optimized for Windows Phone 8. It is now available in the Windows Phone Store.

The app leverages Windows design principles that lend themselves elegantly to the rich content catalog and features on Hulu Plus. The clean and easy to navigate UI provides a visually engaging and intuitive experience.

Launching the app will present a panorama of clips, episodes and shows organized neatly for quick and easy access. Whether you want to binge on “Modern Family” or just need a quick dose of trending clips from “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” the main page has it all laid out for you. There are 6 content hubs – TV, Movies, Latino, Trailers and Kids, which promise non-stop entertainment, just a tap away.

As Chris Trager from “Parks and Rec” would say, “We literally know what you want…” We try our best to understand what our users want and suggest what they may like. Which is why you’ll see recommended shows and movies across the app. For example, if you’ve been binge-watching “Revenge,” we’ll have “Scandal” lined up for you next. Or you can search for whatever you are in the mood for using our advanced search option.

Your phone is always with you and we want to make sure that Hulu Plus is there to entertain you as you like it. If you were unable to finish up last night’s episode of “Community” on your Xbox or tablet, you can instantly resume where you left off using the Hulu Plus app for Windows Phone 8 on your bus ride to work. However, if you just have 15 minutes at lunch time, you can snack on top clips from the show page or add them to your queue for later.

If you are a TV junkie like us, our daily refreshed trending now clips and artfully curated editorial compilations on the latest and greatest of TV and pop culture will keep you in the know. Even when you are not in the app, we’ll keep you up to date with fresh off the boat episodes and TV shows via Live Tiles on your phone’s home screen, so you don’t miss a moment.

We hope you will enjoy the Hulu Plus experience on your Windows Phone 8, as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it. Download the app on your Windows Phone 8 from the Windows Phone Store and let us know what you think.

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New Asian Titles on Hulu and Hulu Plus

May 14th, 2013 by Sarah Craig

In celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, Hulu is adding some new and exciting titles to its Chinese, Japanese and Korean libraries.

Launching today are several entertaining Korean dramas, such as My Sassy Girl (dir. Jae-Young Kwaek), 200 Pounds Beauty (Young-Hwa Kim), and action drama Crying Fist (Seung-Wan Ryoo with Oldboy’s Min-Sik Choi). And just in time for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, prior year Cannes selections Hahaha, Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (Sang-Soo Hong), and A Brand New Life (Ounie Lecomte), all from Korea, are now available on Hulu and Hulu Plus.

The famed Oldboy trilogy is available on Hulu Plus until June 30th. The sci-fi cult classic is about a man determined to find his kidnapper who imprisoned him for 15 years. The film has been recognized at numerous festivals, and took home the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes in 2004.  Enter the world of director Chan-Wook Park with Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance.

New Chinese dramas, such as Love In a Puff (Ho-Cheung Pang), The Soul Of Bread (Pin-Chuan Kao), and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (Johnnie To) made their Hulu debut in the Chinese film category as well.

Continue your journey into cinematic history with the Criterion Collection, which features masterpieces by Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Koboyashi and Nagisa Oshima, among many others. Brand new Criterion titles never before seen on DVD are coming exclusively to Hulu soon, so stay tuned.

Experiencing Asian titles can be as simple as adventuring through one of our many categorized playlists, such as New Asian Films on Hulu, Chinese or Korean Dramas and A Beginner’s Guide to Korean Dramas. And, if you are just in the mood for some action-packed brawls, check out the Asian Fight Films tray to get your fix without having to leave your couch.

 This summer it is easy to escape to Asia with Hulu and Hulu Plus.

 

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Springtime in NYC

April 30th, 2013 by Andy Forssell Acting CEO

For anyone who has anything to do with the TV business, spring means just one thing: Upfronts. Today during the Hulu Upfront, we shared the latest about the Hulu business—including growth metrics, new product innovation and upcoming content—with many of our advertising customers.

Overall, Hulu continues to grow very quickly. In Q1 of this year, we set new records for revenue, and for the first time ever, Hulu viewers streamed more than 1 billion content videos in a single quarter.

Hulu Plus
Subscriptions to Hulu Plus, our ad-supported subscription service, doubled in 2012. Hulu Plus continues to grow at an extremely fast rate; in Q1 2013, Hulu Plus surpassed 4 million subscribers—setting new records for subscriber additions. Our subscribers to date (we exited private beta and officially launched in November 2010):

Mobile viewing is growing at a significant rate and will account for approximately 15% of Hulu’s consumed videos in 2013-2014. For context, mobile viewing was nonexistent on our service only two years ago. Living room viewing is also growing; it currently accounts for 29% of Hulu’s content consumption, and 80% of Hulu Plus subscribers have watched with someone else.

Advertising
Our advertising mission is to be the world’s most effective video advertising service, and we are well on our way. According to comScore, Hulu is #1 in engagement among top ad supported sites. Hulu viewers stay with us for 45 minutes per session—without fast-forwarding or skipping ads. Hulu is also #1 in market share of all premium online video providers, delivering 1 in 3 of all premium video ads in the U.S. Our reasonable ad load drives the highest recall and awareness for brands, which results in higher effectiveness for the video ads.

Content
We are so excited about the momentum and growth Hulu has experienced in bringing new, first run television franchises to our audiences. During the Upfront, we announced two new shows coming exclusively to Hulu:

From writer/director Nancy Hower and writer/star John Lehr, “Quick Draw” is a comedic half-hour western set in 1875 that centers on a Harvard-educated sheriff and his quest to introduce the emerging science of forensics to an unruly Kansas town. Though the citizens of Great Bend, Kansas are generally unimpressed with Sheriff Hoyle’s (Lehr) educational pedigree, they come to appreciate his sharp mind and sharper shooting as he and his reluctant Deputy Eli (Nick Brown) hunt down robbers,murderers, and the dangerous riff-raff that have plagued the town for years. The series is co-created and executive produced by Nancy Hower and John Lehr (“10 Items or Less,” “Jailbait”) and co-executive produced by Keith Raskin (“Key & Peele,” “The League”). “Quick Draw” is coming to Hulu and Hulu Plus in the Summer of 2013, and you can watch a trailer here now: http://www.hulu.com/quick-draw

“East Los High” is not your typical high school.  Dance, sex, romance and mystery are at the heart of thisinner city school in East L.A. where two teenage cousins, Jessie, a 16-year-old virgin, and Maya, a troubled runaway with a violent past, fall in love with Jacob, a popular football player.  With this forbidden love triangle, Maya, Jessie and Jacob, along with their close friends, must face true-to-life decisions throughout a turbulent year that will mark their lives forever. A Hulu Exclusive Series, “East Los High” features an all Latino cast, director, writers and creators—many hailing from East L.A. More than 15 leading public health organizations such as Advocates for Youth, Voto Latino, California Family Health Council and Legacy LA, among others, advised on the scripts and content to address teen issues related to relationships and sexuality in a meaningful way. “East Los High” is the first English-language drama series made for this under served audience.

“Quick Draw” and “East Los High” join the nine other Hulu Original Series and Hulu Exclusive Series that will be premiering as part of Hulu’s Summer Slate 2013, including “The Awesomes,” “Behind the Mask,” “The Wrong Mans,” “Mother Up!,” “Pramface” (season two) “Prisoners of War” (season two), “The Only Way is Essex” (season four), “Braquo” (season two), and “Moone Boy.”

Lastly, we are proud to offer new daily, half hour episodes of two of the longest running, storied, and respected TV franchises: “All My Children” and “One Life To Live.” Both premiered on Hulu and Hulu Plus yesterday.

The entire Hulu team is incredible grateful for the opportunity to build and innovate on behalf of our customers each and every day. Thank you for your belief in us as we continue to build a world-class company.

-Andy

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Daytime Soaps Are Now Anytime Soaps: Hulu Gets Into Bed with “One Life to Live” and “All My Children”

April 29th, 2013 by Martin Moakler Social Community Manager

Soap operas. We started watching them when we were home from school on sick days and snow days. Then we taped them to watch when we got home from school. Then work. Then we eventually became so invested in the characters, they felt like family.

That’s why we’re thrilled and honored to carry on the tradition with the return of beloved soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” with new episodes on Hulu and Hulu Plus starting today.

We visited the set of “AMC” recently, and it was comforting to see the familiar faces and places — and plenty of new ones — all of whom appeared thrilled that the show was back. One familiar face we saw was Cady McClain, who plays Dixie Cooney Martin, and we asked her what the fans should expect from the much-missed soap. She immediately expressed her gratitude with the ardent fan base.

“I know it was a long wait,” she told us. “I know there have been a lot of ups and downs. I just want to assure the fans that it feels like another era of golden years for this show. It’s truly the best that ‘All My Children’ is and can be again.”

And it’s because Cady is a fan herself.

“I’m very excited and feel super lucky to be here right now,” she said. “The story and sets are incredible. There are so many surprises coming. I can’t wait to watch it myself!”

We realize that some of you may not be familiar with watching shows on Hulu, which is why we created a video where the stars of the soaps educate you on how to watch the shows on both Hulu and Hulu Plus. Once you view that, it will be just like old times, watching old friends in Pine Valley and Llanview—only whenever and wherever you want. Leave the drama for the soaps.

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Interview: “Living on One Dollar”

April 22nd, 2013 by Kristin Knox

“A lot of films have been made around poverty, a lot of guilt-based films, and we thought we could tell this story in a new way that was really tailored to the millennial generation.”

We spoke with filmmakers Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci about their 8-week experiment in rural Guatemala living on $1 per day, the typical income for this extremely impoverished region. Their inspirational documentary, Living on One Dollar, follows their encounters with hunger, parasites, and the generous local community as they strive to understand first-hand what life is like below the poverty line.

On first entering the Guatemalan community:

“We were four Americans coming into a village where we didn’t have any connections, trying to figure out how to survive, and the kids would come up and just stare at us, watching for hours. It was the kids who really bridged the gap between us and the rest of the community.”

On their living arrangements:

“We lived in a small mud hut and slept right on a small pad on the dirt floor, with two blankets between the four of us. The worst part was that the dirt floor had fleas, and you can see in the film where we’re just covered in red bites. There was one morning where I [Chris] woke up with both giardia [a parasite] and E. coli, and we didn’t know if we had enough money to budget for food, let alone the cost of medicine.”

On farming to help make ends meet:

“We wanted to simulate starting a business in this community, so we took out our own microfinance loan and worked during the day as radish farmers. Trying to do 8 hours of manual labor when we’d only eaten one small bowl of rice and beans, which was all that we could afford, and when we hadn’t had a good night’s sleep, was just debilitating, both physically and mentally.”

On the value of microfinance loans:

“One of the most powerful stories we heard was from Rosa, who is featured in the film. In sixth grade, she had to drop out of school to help feed her family, but she always dreamed of becoming a nurse. As an adult, she took out a $200 microfinance loan to start her own weaving business and was able to send herself back to school with the profits. A $200 loan provided this opportunity for her to empower herself and bring herself closer to her dream.”

On what they hope viewers will take away from their documentary:

“What we hope people walk away with is to believe that small efforts can really make a big impact on the life of someone living in extreme poverty, and to believe that we can all make a difference.”

Living on One Dollar will be available exclusively in the U.S. through Hulu and Hulu Plus from April 22-May 3 to coincide with “Live Below the Line”, an anti-poverty awareness campaign encouraging people around the world to try living for five days on $1.50 per day for food and water.

Visitors to Chris and Zach’s nonprofit site livingonone.org can get involved by learning about or donating directly to microfinance organizations that provide loans in impoverished areas. Schools, churches, and other community groups worldwide can also book a personalized Living on One Dollar screening with the filmmakers to discuss what we can all do to make a difference.

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