For $35, Chromecast is a handy way to watch Hulu videos on your television without paying for Hulu Plus—and it's going to stay that way.
With Chromecast, users can beam any browser tab—including the free version of Hulu—from the desktop version of Chrome to their televisions.
TV networks are generally okay with letting you watch Hulu shows for free on a laptop or desktop PC, but if want to watch the same streaming videos on a television, they'd like you to pay up. That's why Hulu requires an $8 per month Hulu Plus subscription to watch its videos on game consoles and set-top boxes. It's also why Hulu and several TV networks blocked Google TV from accessing their Websites.
Mike Homnick
The tricky thing about Chromecast is that it allows you to watch free Hulu videos on your television without the friction of physically tethering a laptop to the TV via HDMI. Unfortunately for Hulu, there's no easy way to stop Chromecast from streaming the free Website without blocking the Chrome browser entirely. The only other option would be to switch Hulu's streaming technology from Flash to Silverlight, which Chromecast doesn't support. But that would be a huge undertaking, and not worthwhile given that development on Silverlight has stalled.
Mike Homnick
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