If you’re a US reader it’s time to jump for joy (sarcastically) or if you live in the UK then I expect a shrug indifference as American TV streaming service Hulu has announced a new premium service to co-exist alongside it’s current free services.

Hulu works much like our numerous Video-on-Demand services work in the UK (such as BBC iPlayer or 4oD), but is unique in that it’s a platform that unifies all the broadcasters VoD services into one tool. A similar project was undertaken in the UK in 2008 by some of the biggest British broadcasters, dubbed ‘Project Kangaroo’, which sought to bring all these different on-demand services together, however the Competition Commission blocked the project, saying that “there was a danger that the platform could be too powerful” and would hurt competition. ‘Project Kangaroo’, though officially deceased, lives on in part as SeeSaw, which distributes content from Five, Channel 4 and some older BBC content either for free or for a small fee.

Hulu Plus offers a ‘season pass’ to every broadcast episode of a show, whereas Free Hulu makes only the previous five episodes to the most recently broadcast available on their service and for a limited time. Videos can now be streamed in HD and is available as an app for the iPhone, iPod, iPad and direct TV streaming for customers paying just under ten dollars per month.

The ‘freemium’ model, offering additional services for a fee on top of free services, is nothing new and ‘Plus’ has already come under some criticism for the fuss made by Hulu in promoting it. People do, however, have a tendency to avoid premium services, just as Spotify’s premium services were almost totally avoided before the cap was put on the free option, and Hulu Plus doesn’t offer anything particularly new or awe-inspiring that might persuade our American cousins to part with their cash; but people do like their TV shows and with the increasing use of VoD services by people, Hulu Plus has a fighting chance.