Jon Miller, former AOL boss, is now heading up all digital initiatives at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Only weeks after that announcement, Miller has already started making waves by suggesting Hulu might add or move to a paid subscription model.

Miller's musings are more than simply speculative, since he will have a seat on Hulu's board (the Fox television network, a unit of News Corp., is part of the Hulu joint venture).

News Corp. has an affinity for subscription revenue models on the Web; where most papers and online news sources are ad-supported, News Corp.'s Wall Street Journal continues to see success even with much of its content behind a paywall.

The current Hulu model is a boon for users—watch high-quality content on demand with only a single advertisement per commercial break—but total revenues are still miniscule compared to traditional TV advertising. The ad downturn hasn't helped, either; most regular Hulu users are accustomed to seeing the (many) ads for charities that Hulu apparently slots into its rotation when it can't sell out its ad inventory.

So, if users love the product but advertisers don't want to pay, one obvious approach is just to charge the users. Hulu's rapid growth has made it one of the top five online destinations for video in the US, but that growth rate has leveled off sharply.

Throwing up paywalls or other subscription-based access controls (get Hulu free with your WSJ subscription, for instance, or pay $20 for access to a full season of House) would certainly put a further crimp in growth at a time when services like Hulu are still mysteries to large parts of the American TV-watching public. It is likely to have the additional effect of sending some Hulu users in search of free conent on BitTorrent trackers and the like.

Still, when you can't sell out your ad inventory, having more eyeballs isn't directly profitable. According to Daily Finance, which covered Miller's conference speech, his interest is in finding creative ways to bundle News Corp. content with other offerings to create a compelling package that people will pay for.

"I think what works for consumers most likely—and this has to be tested, frankly—is bundles," he said. "I think you have to figure out what are the right bundles that people buy and what's contained in that bundle. For example, you could have—and I'm making this up entirely—you could have a New York bundle, and that could consist of various papers or publications that are relevant to the audience in New York, and you could make that all, potentially, a bundle to a consumer at one price."