Nintendo, which 
shied away from offering multimedia devices until long after its competitors, is getting more serious about video streaming.
The company has announced that its 3DS handheld system and the Wii will add Hulu Plus to their options before the end of the year. (No exact date was announced.)
YouTube might be the king of the hill 
when it comes to video content on the Internet, but when it comes to premium programming, no one can beat Hulu.
A new report from ComScore finds online audiences watched 19.4 billion minutes on the site last year. That’s nearly twice as much time as was spent watching online video on the sites of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW, with a combined 9.7 billion minutes in 2010.
Hulu’s subscription service – taking the Web-
based operation beyond the PC – has moved out of its beta period and is welcoming all who are interested. Hulu Plus officially launches today – and, even better, it’s getting cheaper.
The company has scaled back the $9.99 monthly fee it has charged since late June to $7.99 – and says it will issue refunds for the difference to early adopters who were in the beta. The price cut is a welcome one, but still higher than the $4.99 figure many people were expecting.
When Hulu announced plans to finally make its streaming service available beyond the PC, people cheered – until they heard the details. Subscribers to Hulu Plus would have to pay a $9.95 monthly fee and still watch the embedded ads in programs? That was a bit much to swallow.
Hulu may finally be about to acknowledge those complaints.
Hulu seems to be making noises that 
it could be nearing the end of its beta period on its Hulu Plus service. The company has announced another pair of set-top boxes that will begin carrying the service soon.
Tivo has signed on with the company to bring Hulu Plus to its Premiere DVRs in the coming months, and all Roku streaming media players will begin carrying it this fall.
Apple is wading into the stream. The company’s 
much-anticipated overhaul of its Apple TV service eschews the download-to-own model in favor of an HD Web streaming rental biz.
Apple’s plan to make movies available day and date with DVD for a $4.99 rental is in keeping with the film biz’s piracy-combatting push to make titles available for easy legal downloads through a host of platforms, from Apple’s iTunes to Netflix (which Apple TV will support); Amazon, Hulu and Blockbuster; the major videogame consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo; and, soon, YouTube.
Hulu Plus is still in its limited preview mode, but if you 
can’t get an invite – and you just can’t wait watch Hulu on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, there’s now a way to do so.
Hulu is inviting people to download the free Hulu Plus app to help them test the experience – meaning a limited number of show episodes and clips are viewable by anyone with an iDevice.
Chris Morris: Journalist 