Hulu Tops 4M Paid Subscribers, Reveals New Original Shows

Hulu on Tuesday announced two new original shows coming this summer, just as the popular streaming video service topped 4 million paid subscribers.

The company said subscriptions to its Hulu Plus service doubled last year to reach the 4 million mark in the first quarter of 2013. Hulu also set a new record for paid subscriber growth during the quarter, adding nearly a million members between January and March.

"Overall, Hulu continues to grow very quickly," Hulu's acting CEO, Andy Forssell, wrote in a blog post Tuesday. "In Q1 of this year, we set new records for revenue, and for the first time ever, Hulu viewers streamed more than 1 billion content videos in a single quarter."

Quick Draw Hulu

Mobile viewing is also growing at a "significant rate," he added. It will account for about 15 percent of viewership in 2013-2014. Living room viewing accounts for 29 percent of content consumption.

Meanwhile, Hulu also announced two new original shows making their way to the platform this summer. Quick Draw, a comedic half-hour western set in 1875, centers on a Harvard-educated sheriff and his mission to bring the new concept of forensics to a small Kansas town.

The other new show, East Los High, is a drama set in an inner city school in East Los Angeles. It features an all-Latino cast, writers, and directors and centers around the turbulent lives of two teenage cousins.

The new shows will join former ABC soaps All My Children and One Life to Live, both of which premiered on Hulu this week. Hulu also previously announced a number of other original shows coming soon, including The Awesomes, an animated series from Seth Meyers and Michael Shoemaker, which follows a pack of second-class superheroes, and Mother up!, a comedy starring Eva Longoria as a former music exec who struggles to embrace suburban motherhood.

Other shows headed to Hulu include: Behind the Mask, The Wrong Mans, Pramface (season two), Prisoners of War (season two), The Only Way is Essex (season four), Braquo (season two), and Moone Boy.

For more, see PCMag's full review of Hulu Plus.

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes.

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app.

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth.

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light.

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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