Hulu was a great idea when launched, catch up on missed episodes of tv shows by visiting a website. But when it became clear it was never going to turn a profit using the free model, coupled with a maturing online tv market. The future is looking not so rosey.

When Comedy Central took down two of the most popular shows on Hulu — “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”, due to a dispute over advertising revenue share. The splits became apparent. And it probably cemented Hulu’s opinion that giving away content free will never pay. Then came UK network ITV’s decision to concentrate on their own website and snub Hulu.

But the alternative of charging to view, may well send viewers running and kill off the website’s current growth. This could leave Hulu in an even worse condition. Viewers visit Hulu because its so easy to use, they can watch the same content by visiting the networks own websites. Hulu is after all just an aggregator service, and viewers like ease of use and a single portal rather than visiting several. But Hulu have no premium content a’la HBO

If Hulu starts to charge for existing free TV shows and movies then whats to stop users watching the same show from the networks website or on a traditional tv. Perhaps with no Hulu around, people will be more digilent with their dvr and record the show to watch later.

“There are very few people who would be willing to pay for it,” said Bruce Leichtman, president of the Leichtman Research Group. Chase Carey, chief operating officer of Hulu co-owner News Corp., has said that the site would have to start charging for some video eventually, though he and other officials have been mum about the specifics.

Visitors will surely drop as Comedy Central fans leave the site, and by leaving they show that it doesn’t need Hulu to bring in online traffic and revenue. So Hulu is becoming the middle man that nobody wants to pay for. So that leaves Hulu needing to find a workable pay model.

However, a Leichtman survey showed that 81% “strongly disagree” with the notion of paying $9.95 a month for a service like Hulu, whilst around 5% “strongly agree” to pay. So its not going to be easy, and Hulu will have to offer content that viewers cannot find easily somewhere else.

So the future of Hulu has to be a pay to view model with possibly a free section. With possible movie rentals and downloads like Amazon or Apple iTunes. Whatever the outcome, Hulu’s honeymoon period is over and not all the networks want to play ball.

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