This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

American internet TV service Hulu could stage an abrupt turnaround and begin charging viewers for the right to watch programmes online.

The website – which is a joint venture between US television giants NBC, Fox, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and Disney – is considering bringing in charges for some premium broadcasts.

According to News Corp's deputy chairman, Chase Carey, the advertising-supported free-to-air model that Hulu has used so far is not viable in the long term.

"I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content," he told the Broadcasting & Cable OnScreen conference in New York on Thursday.

"Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business."

The site – which offers shows including House, The Simpsons and Lost – has proven a hit with American television viewers since it launched in 2007.

However, the economics of the service have been questioned since the value of advertising on the site is far lower than that achieved on traditional broadcast TV.

The move could put the brakes on plans to launch a British version of the service, which had been rumoured to be in the works.

With UK users flocking to the BBC iPlayer website, which offers the corporation's programming for free, and Channel 4 recently forging a deal to put its shows on YouTube, it could prove tough to convince viewers to pay for online access.

It also brings into question the decision to shutter development of Project Kangaroo - a plan to create a more open version of the iPlayer, supported by all of Britain's terrestrial broadcasters. That scheme was blocked by the Competition Commission earlier this year, after objections from Murdoch-owned Sky.

While Carey did not confirm that there were concrete plans to introduce charges to Hulu, he suggested that a paywall could be introduced in 2010.

"It's time to start getting paid for broadcast content online," he said.

In recent months senior News Corp executives have announced a series of plans to roll back the company's free-to-access web strategy – including across its newspaper and TV outlets.

Murdoch himself has said he wants to bring in paywalls to fix the media's "malfunctioning" business model, while former Times editor Robert Thomson – now running the Wall Street Journal – has lashed out at Google on several occasions for what he says is a parasitic attitude towards mainstream media.

Yesterday, Thomson repeated his attacks - telling Google vice president Marissa Meyer that she encouraged a loose relationship between media companies and consumers.

"Marissa unintentionally encourages promiscuity," he said. "The whole Google model is based on digital disloyalty – about disloyalty to creators."