by Dan Moren
Offline viewing is on Hulu’s road map
Talking to AdAge’s Jason Lynch, Hulu CEO Mike Harris mentioned that the company is working on offline viewing:
Another feature your SVOD competitors have rolled out is the ability to download content to one’s device. Is that something Hulu will be offering as well?
Yes, it’s definitely on our road map. It’s something that we’re going be doing in a few months. We’re working hard on the technology around that and getting the rights squared away.
This is great news and it can’t come soon enough. Netflix added offline viewing for some titles late last year, and that was a big deal for those who either travel a lot or often spend time in areas that have low connectivity. I often find myself wanting to load up some TV before I hop a plane, and it would be great to be able to access the latest episode of the current shows I’m watching.1 (I have to wonder, however, whether those downloads will include commercials in them, or will require subscribers to have Hulu’s commercial-free option, or what.)
- That said, inflight Wi-Fi is also getting better and better, so we may reach the point where downloading is exclusively for when you can’t get online at all. ↩