Will Hulu Plus Affect DVD Sales? Not Quite Yet.

Being the go to name for anyone interested in the world of television, some have begun speculating that Hulu’s new subscription based product, Hulu Plus, may be yet another nail in the nearly shut coffin set for DVD.

While I personally think that the proclamations of Hulu Plus being a Netflix killer are highly unfounded, as the two are hunting for two different demographics, I don’t think that the discussions are nearly as ridiculous.

The ability of being able to go back into a show’s run, including every single episode of the said show, does a few things. It gives the viewer the ability to pick a show at a whim, and sit down, commercials allegedly included, and watch whatever the show, whenever, and with apps on things like the iPad, wherever. It also makes the idea of buying a television show on DVD not only a random and poor purchase, but one that just doesn’t seem to make sense.

No matter how much of a fan of physical media that I may be, I know that I have skipped out on purchasing a DVD simply because it was available on my Netflix Watch Instant queue, and I can only imagine that more and more people will be doing this, just now for ridiculously expensive television collections.

That said, shows like Six Feet Under, Carnivale, and Breaking Bad, which are all readily available for under 20$, and in the former two’s case (albeit they are complete franchises, unlike Bad) for 15$ or less, will still be picked up, just because they will fit the budget of most. However, shows like Fringe, whose first season runs 40$ plus, will be skipped over because people will have access to them for simply 10$ a month.

Overall, it’s not a dead format at all, but DVD is definitely going to have a tough time ahead of it.

Source: New TeeVee