CBS has slowly begun to roll out an HTML5 version of it’s site to cater to mobile devices lacking Flash support. More specifically, the iPad. This is great news for iPad users and hopefully a trend that the other networks continue to follow. While ABC does not have an HTML5 version of it’s site, it does offer it’s video catalog through a dedicated iPad app. CBS has stated that they plan to release a dedicated iPad app (to hopefully replace their lame first attempt) but not until they have finished converting their Flash video offerings online. Currently, online Survivor is available through the new HTML5 video version of the site. CBS plans to continue developement over the summer with hopes that all video is HTML5 ready in time for the Fall TV season. The updates to their site coming first makes sense as enabling an HTML5 version opens the door for more devices than just the iPad. It also gives CBS time for some “lessons learned” before creating a new iPad app. Hopefully, this is another signal of the shift away from Flash for video. I’m not one of the “Flash is dead” evangelists, it just needs to be used where appropriate. And it’s not good for video for a variety of reasons.

As for Hulu, there are now two big networks (ABC, CBS) serving their video content in iPad friendly formats and it would be foolish of the other networks not to follow suit. This is unfortunate because of Hulu’s ease of use and “one-stop shop” for all TV viewing online, but I don’t see how it could happen at this point. The networks are learning that they can manage their own video and may not need Hulu after all (see “Comedy Central leaves Hulu“). So consumers will be stuck with multiple apps/sites to pull in all their video. But it the ultimate end is the ability to drop cable all together, it may be worth the slight frustration of changing between apps. Besides, multi-tasking is coming

With the announcement that Hulu will launch a paid subscription service on May 24th, analyts are speculating that this means the rumored iPad Hulu app is on it’s way as well. The $9.95/month service is being called “Hulu Plus” and will give users access to additional episodes and a more comprehensive selection.

During the days leading up to the iPad launch, Hulu was one of the rumored “launch apps” but ultimately never appeared. MacRumors claimed Hulu was waiting to launch a “subscription service” before rolling out an app.

From a technical standpoint, there are a few hurdles to overcome before this happens:
1. Hulu video is Flash.
The iPad notoriously doesn’t support Flash and given recent statements from Adobe, it likely never will. Hulu could possibly offer an HTML5 version of it’s site similar to the way YouTube and Vimeo have but the question is whether or not Hulu’s underlying videos are actually h.264 encoded mp4′s or if the Flash player is merely calling Flash encoded FLV files. The problem with an HTML5 version of the site is the video no longer has the “DRM-like” quality that Flash provides. Users can easily download the mp4 sources files. Even ad them to iTunes and watch completely independent of Hulu. Most likely Hulu will need to work on some type of server side streaming solution to prevent this.
2. Ads
None of the reports on the new “Hulu Plus” service specify “ad free” video so let’s assume that ads are here to stay for Hulu. Those ads are triggered within the Flash player and are critical for Hulu to continue getting content from the “always scared of new technology” TV networks. With an HTML version of the site or a native iPad app, considerable coding will be needed to recreate the same experience. I can’t see Hulu doing double work for all videos so will they transition to an HTML5 only version?

Regardless of how they choose to deliver the content, if the app does appear, it makes yet ANOTHER compelling reason to have an iPad around as the ultimate media consumption device (iTunes, ABC, CBS, Netflix).