Hulu Plus Makes Its Way Onto TiVo Premiere DVRs

TiVo Premiere owners can now watch Hulu content on their set-top boxes, thanks to a new deal between the companies announced Monday.

Sure, TiVo subscribers have to sign up for the $7.95-a-month Hulu Plus service in order to stream to their TVs (Hulu requires a subscription to Hulu Plus for any non-computer streaming), but TiVo has announced some incentives for its subscribers to sign up.

If you already own a TiVo Premiere, you can sign up for a free, one-month trial before starting your subscription. If you purchase a new TiVo Premiere box, on the other hand, you'll get six months free.

TiVo launched its Premiere set-top box over a year ago, in an attempt to stay relevant in a world of successful web content-streaming devices such as the Roku box and the Apple TV. TiVo's real revamp was its interface (Series 4), not its actual box, though Series 4 cannot be installed on older TiVo boxes. So, if you have TiVo, but you don't have a Premiere box, you'll need to upgrade in order to access Hulu Plus.

I'm one of those folks with an older TiVo, but I'm not too upset about missing out on Hulu Plus. Why? I strongly believe Internet content should be free, and that people should be free to choose how they view said content. Hulu's sneaky policies on how and where you can view content bother me to no end.

I'm not paying for the privilege to stream to my TV, no thanks.

That said, I'm not surprised at Hulu's sneaky ways--that's what you get when TV networks, the very market threatened by web video, run an online streaming service.

For more tech news and commentary, follow Ed on Twitter at @edoswald and on Facebook.

This story, "Hulu Plus Makes Its Way Onto TiVo Premiere DVRs" was originally published by PCWorld.