Microsoft confirms Hulu Plus on Xbox 360 for tomorrow, free for all until May 6

by David Hinkle on Apr 28th 2011 1:40PM

We knew it was coming, but Microsoft has finally gotten around to confirming the news: Hulu Plus will officially launch on the Xbox 360 tomorrow, April 29. Not only will it feature Kinect support, but it will also be free to all Xbox 360 users (Gold and Silver) for the first week thanks to a partnership with Jack Link's Beef Jerky. And to think, your mom said consuming so much beef jerky would never benefit you in the end. Shows what she knows.

After that free week, feel free to indulge in another free week by going on over to the Hulu Plus page -- just don't tell anybody we tipped you off! We're afraid you'll have to pony up some cash after that if you want to continue to use the service: $7.99 a month.

For the full press release, hit the jump.

Hulu Plus (Xbox 360)

Show full PR text

Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE Delivers Controller-free TV Shows and Movies; Jack Link's Sponsors Free Access for all Xbox 360 Owners

With an ever-growing entertainment experience at the center of the home, Xbox 360 will soon offer thousands more HD TV shows and movies via Hulu Plus. The Hulu Plus subscription service will launch on Xbox 360 this Friday, April 29, instantly delivering current season hit TV shows from ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC, MTV, and more, plus classic movies anytime to U.S. Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Hulu Plus subscribers.

"We're proud deliver the best in entertainment content like no other device in the living room," said Pete Thompson, General Manager, Xbox LIVE. "Hulu Plus is an important addition to support our continued effort to expand entertainment on Xbox LIVE. And by adding the magic of Kinect, we're truly transforming the way people enjoy their favorite entertainment."

A Hulu Plus subscription currently offers hit TV shows and classic movies anytime in HD, including current season episodes of top shows like "Modern Family," "30 Rock," "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and many others. Catch up on complete back seasons of series including "Lost," or explore hundreds of acclaimed movies from The Criterion Collection. All for just $7.99 a month with limited advertising.

With Kinect for Xbox 360, you can easily control your Hulu Plus entertainment from your couch using your voice as the remote control. Play, pause, fast forward and rewind any video content you are watching using gesture or voice commands, as well as select movies and TV shows recommended for you by Hulu through the Kinect Hub.

Jack Link's and Xbox "Unlock" Hulu Plus to All Xbox LIVE Members

Launch is just the beginning, too. To celebrate the debut of Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE, Jack Link's Beef Jerky is unlocking Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE from April 29 – May 6. Through this sponsorship, all Xbox LIVE members (Free or Gold) will be able to enjoy Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE, no Hulu Plus subscription or Xbox LIVE Gold membership required for an entire week. Jack Link's and Xbox LIVE are also partnering to host an accompanying sweepstakes where users who download the Hulu Plus application can win everything from a vacation for two to a Beaches® Resort to an Xbox 360 GB Console with Kinect. For full details, click www.xbox.com/HuluPlusLaunch

With Xbox LIVE, take your Xbox 360 online and enjoy an expanding catalogue of entertainment from a range of partners, networks and studios around the world, and interact with a growing community of 30 million active members. With the community spending more than one billion hours a month online enjoying entertainment, Xbox 360 is the only place to experience controller-free entertainment with tens of thousands of movies and TV shows in HD streaming, thousands of live and on-demand sports, and millions of songs – all on the biggest screen in your home shared with the people you care about most wherever they are.

Tags: hulu-plus, kinect, microsoft, microsoft-kinect, streaming, video, xbox

Reader Comments (77)

There you go complainers

@Mrblonde57
I'm still complaining (Canada)

@xreadmore

I was just gonna say that :(

@xreadmore Yeh, not happy aussie here. Only thing we have is Foxtel on 360 (www.foxtel.com.au), not going to pay $30 a month for IPTV.

Sweet! But, I have DSL. Will I be able to stream it...well?

@Engerz How fast is your DSL? 6 Mbps? No problems. 1.5 Mbps? You won't get HD, but it'll look ok. That's the max my parents get out in the middle of nowhere and Netflix and Hulu both look fine.

@louiedog Ah alright. Last time I did a speed test the results were 2.5 Mbps. HD or not should be fun to try out. Thanks.

@Engerz

check it out for free!

@Engerz - I don't know if you'll get HD with that. Actually, I'd think not. You'd have to buffer pretty much the entire show to make that work.

Then again, who knows what magic formula companies use to determine streaming quality. I'm on 24/3 U-Verse, and sometimes I still have to manually select HQ on Hulu.

Great job! I will defiantly partake...hoping they have Burn Notice on here

@tdrwiega

Sadly, they don't.

@MrSmiley1
really shocking since they have a bunch of NBC stuff on there and its a NBC/Universal show

@tdrwiega

I know. I was baffled by that as well. I still pay the monthly fee for it anyway so I can watch the "free tv" stuff. I cannot get a single major network channel my area without having a monthly cable (I was quoted $35 a month!). With this, I can watch it on my big screen in HD.

Netflix has more TV than I'll ever need. I think 4.99 or less would be better for this service.

I mean is that all you get on Hulu + is TV stuff? Last time I even looked at Hulu you could only get recent episodes anyway, is that still the case?

Help me out here.

@DeadRabbits Hulu+ is just TV stuff AND it still has commercials. Most of it's (good) back catalog is also on netflix anyway.

@blackangel209

Wait, commercials on a paid service? I can see commercials on non-premium cable/satellite, but for a strictly streaming TV service they still nail you will advertising?

That sounds annoying.

@DeadRabbits

Pretty sure Hulu+ enables back catalogues of some shows

@DeadRabbits Hulu gives you current season stuff, usually the last 5 episodes or the new episodes from the previous 30 days. Hulu+ gives you the entire current season and usually back season. It also gives you HD and device access (360, PS3, iOS, etc.). So basically it's higher quality, easier to watch on your TV, and usually the only place to legally stream the entire current season of a show.

@louiedog

If you have a computer hooked up to your TV, you can always stream current shows for free from the network sites.

I'm assuming not to Canada, still. :\

@Rocket Raccoon

Nope.

@Rocket Raccoon

Why does a hat need to watch TV anyways?

unless of course its a "Helping Hat" from Disney's "Meet The Robinson's"

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

People tend to not make hats out of Raccoons that wield nuclear ordnance and are accompanied by trees called Groot.

This is why I held off on subscribing until it finally released on the 360. There was no way they wouldn't have some sort of free deal involved. Sweeeeeeet.

@swooded

Something doesn't add up, there.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
to expand on my sentiments. I've been planning on subscribing to Hulu+ since it was announced to be coming to 360. I didn't subscribe sooner (even though I do use Hulu on my pc & through playon) because I was expecting there would be deals involved when it was released to the 360. There are. That makes me happy, because I will be getting a couple free weeks prior to paying for my sub.

@swooded
...Sweeeeeeet.

Sweet, I should be able to figure out if I want it in that time. I don't watch much tv, but out of what I do watch I didn't see much of it available on Hulu.

"All" doesn't mean America - please, the whole world isn't just inside the USA, so it's not free to "all Xbox 360 users".

@slimbloke Just because you don't have access to it, doesn't mean it isn't free. :D

@slimbloke

This.

Also, America means North and South America but that's still not included.

Poor Canada :(

@blackangel209 LOL, yeah, I guess. Free nothing! Woop-woop!

@slimbloke - In this case, the 'all' means Gold & Silver. It's not a region thing.

@Mcmax3000 XBox have told me different - it's just for the USA.

@Rocket Raccoon

Whoaaaa. Why the random downvoting for pointing out how often people misuse America when they really just mean the USA?

@Rocket Raccoon

Because when people say America or Americans, they aren't talking about people from Guatemala or Uruguay. They're speaking of people from the U.S.. I know it, they know it, and you know it.

@SisypheanLife

Yes, that doesn't mean I can't point out how incorrect it is.

What do I know. I'm an anthropomorphic raccoon! :(

Wait, was this a press release for Hulu Plus, or an advertisement for Modern Family?

I’ve had the Hulu Plus service for almost 5 months now on my Roku box. At $8 bucks a month it really complements the Netflix streaming service. It in no way competes or replaces it. It’s nice to have current shows (and all of their previous seasons) in HD with very little ads. Regular Hulu only allows access the most recent episodes. You also have access to older shows that are very hard to find elsewhere (like American Gothic or Night Gallery). There is some crossover with Netflix (like current episodes of SNL).

In the end, the $8 a month, plus whatever you pay for Netflix is really worth it if you wanna cut the cable TV cord.

@afterburner1978 "You also have access to older shows that are very hard to find elsewhere"

Does it have Dark Justice? Not too many people remember that show seen as though it came out in the early 90's as part of CBS's "Crimetime After Primetime"

@Dance Mofo Hulu doesn't have CBS content. They did recently sign a deal with Netflix and some of their older stuff is already there with more on the way. If it shows up anywhere it'd be there probably. CBS.com has some old shows as well, but it's not one of them.

thanks for the tip joystiq!
oh and if you have an .edu email you get a free month!!

@psnkillstrike - Free months of Hulu Plus? Sweet. What other free offers am I not aware of? I'm already taking advantage of my free year of prime, but surely there are other things for me to sign up for out there.

@BananaBoat - month*

Woo free beef jerky!

I'm surprised I haven't seen this answered before, and I'm not sure how Hulu Plus works. Will the free-ad supported content available through Hulu today be accessible through this app at no charge?

@Benglishman

No. Hulu + or bust.

Wow. PSN is down, so I haven't turned on my PS3 in a month and now a free 2 weeks of Hulu Plus? I didn't get that with my PS+ membership.

Just wow.

week, not month

If this Jack Link's promotion comes with a reel of all the Sasquatch commercials I would try it out just for that.

Hulu plus is still a little too expensive to me. They should have started off at the $5/month sweet spot. They were even proposing a $10/month fee at first, but that would have been crazy so I guess $8 was a settlement.

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Microsoft confirms Hulu Plus on Xbox 360 for tomorrow, free for all until May 6

Hulu Plus (Xbox 360)

Reader Comments (77)

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:44PM Mrblonde57 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 3:25PM xreadmore said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 4:08PM Ultima said

Posted: Apr 29th 2011 12:18AM sortius said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:46PM Engerz said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:57PM louiedog said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:10PM Engerz said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:11PM eat it said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:14PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:46PM tdrwiega said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:51PM MrSmiley1 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:53PM tdrwiega said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:22PM MrSmiley1 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:48PM DeadRabbits said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:50PM blackangel209 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:53PM DeadRabbits said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:56PM oOWallaceOo said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:01PM louiedog said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 4:52PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:50PM Rocket Raccoon said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:01PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 3:24PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 5:25PM Rocket Raccoon said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:53PM swooded said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:01PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:36PM swooded said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:40PM swooded said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:54PM The Tim said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 1:55PM slimbloke said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:04PM blackangel209 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:09PM Rocket Raccoon said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:10PM slimbloke said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:15PM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:55PM slimbloke said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 5:20PM Rocket Raccoon said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 5:35PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Apr 29th 2011 6:34PM Rocket Raccoon said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:00PM Raiderfan said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:08PM afterburner1978 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:53PM Dance Mofo said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 3:53PM louiedog said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:09PM psnkillstrike said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:21PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:30PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:11PM Raffi256 said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:15PM Benglishman said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:26PM R Planteer said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:20PM mairondil said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:20PM mairondil said

Posted: Apr 28th 2011 2:22PM Lerkero said

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