My trouble is I don’t watch enough television. If I burned through the national average, watching 35 hours a week, I would probably love Hulu Plus, the new pay-to-play video service.
Hulu.com is a partnership of major media producers — News Corp., which runs the Fox TV network; the Walt Disney Co., owners of the ABC network; and NBC Universal. Of the big four broadcast networks, only CBS is missing.
The free version of Hulu launched in 2008 and quickly became a popular way to catch the show you missed last night. It was a poor man’s TiVo; no need to invest in a digital video recorder when you could watch yesterday’s episode of “House’’ on any Internet-connected computer.
Hulu Plus is being gradually rolled out to the public, at $9.99 a month. There is a waiting list to try it; sign up for access at hulu.com/plus.
While the free version of Hulu tends to offer the most recent episodes of a show, the subscription service carries a much broader selection. Fans of the NBC sitcom “The Office’’ can only look at five episodes, from the most recent season, on free Hulu, but Hulu Plus subscribers can see six seasons’ worth of shows whenever they want.
In addition, Hulu Plus offers higher video resolution, up to the high-definition standard of 720p. It is also compatible with lots of video-capable devices. That includes your living room TV if you buy one of the newest sets by Samsung Corp. You can also get Hulu Plus through Samsung’s Blu-ray disk players.
Sony Corp. will offer access through its PlayStation 3 video game console. But there is a catch: You must pay $50 a year for Sony’s new PlayStation Plus online service, an attempt to mimic the success of Xbox Live, Microsoft Corp.’s popular subscription service for the Xbox 360. Hulu Plus also runs on the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, and of course, on a PC or Macintosh computer.
I ran Hulu Plus on an iPad, and found it quite an acceptable TV substitute. Shows look very good on the big, bright Apple tablet, and the iPad’s portability made it easy to watch anywhere in the house.
But here’s the thing: I already pay $13.99 a month for the video subscription service Netflix. That gets me two DVDs at a time mailed to my house, as well as the ability to stream thousands of movies and TV shows straight to my iPad.
For me, Netflix is the better deal. Hulu is no haven for movie buffs; its selection is tiny and almost entirely dreadful. It is aimed at TV addicts, after all.
Apart from the current lineup of ABC, NBC, and Fox shows, Hulu Plus does have thousands of older programs, scrolling back to the 1950s. An old episode of the “Alfred Hitchcock Hour’’ that frightened me terribly as a child still scared me four decades later.
But there is a hit-or-miss quality to the collection. The absence of CBS from the Hulu partnership means that the network’s current shows are not there. That means no “NCIS’’ or “CSI.’’ Even when shows are listed, you do not always get every episode. For instance, the entire eight-year run of the Fox series “24’’ can be streamed over Netflix, but Hulu Plus offers only season eight.
Many shows are not streamable on Netflix. But you can get them on DVD at no extra cost. Around here, the disks usually hit your mailbox in two days. Surely you can hold out that long. The Netflix disk library is full of shows Hulu lacks, including classic HBO series like “The Sopranos’’ and “The Wire.’’
And there is the matter of commercials. Netflix figures that a monthly subscription entitles you to ad-free viewing. Not so with Hulu Plus. Its videos are littered with ads. The ads are usually brief and often clever, but you cannot fast-forward through them.
In the iPad version, each ad displays a hyperlink in one corner of the screen. Touch it, and the video pauses while you are taken to the advertiser’s website. It is a well-designed interactive marketing gimmick, but at $10 a month, I expect to watch my reruns in peace.
Netflix makes more sense for occasional viewers like me. But Hulu Plus, ads and all, could prove irresistible to those who cannot get enough of “Bones’’ or “Lost’’ or “Family Guy.’’ Hulu’s own commercials depict the service as a plot to soften our brains through nonstop TV viewing. It might just work — just not on me.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com. 
