Only a handful of advertisers have signed on to start, including Georgia-Pacific, Kellogg's and Maker's Mark, although Hulu is clearly hoping for more.

The ad strategy reflects practical reality, if you ask Hulu. Nearly half of its ad-supported viewing hours are spent in binge watching sessions -- why not take advantage of that? The perks for your third consecutive episode could encourage you to watch more of a given show and not only see more ads, but build hype for any future seasons. Of course, it should be noted that this generally won't be an issue with Hulu's ad-free tier. This is really about making ads more palatable for customers who'd rather not pay $12 per month (or use an ad-free service like Netflix) to avoid commercials.