If they have a full library of shows for fox and nbc, and carry full seasons, and past seasons.
$9.99 a month is dirt cheap, and I would be all for it.
It is odd to me that people who pay for apple premium products are freaking out over a $10 a month fee, if done properly would be a massive value for any other way to get these shows. DVRs cost money. Heck a cable/satellite dvr fee is $5 a month, is not going to be capable of capturing all of the shows if they fill out the associated networks.
Well, here's the problem. See, the "last 5 eps" are still free on Hulu. "Every episode from every previous season" is already included in a $10/mo NetFlix subscription (which also just happens to offer streaming or mail delivery of every movie imaginable to every device you can think of, oh yeah, including iPad). "Every episode from this season" is also included in taht selfsame NetFlix account, but for select shows (which I still can't find listed outside their subscriber walls ... gotta subscribe to Netflix to see what shows are available for next-day viewing?).
So, Hulu's $10/mo subscription allows access to:
1. Episodes which aired this season (or the DVD has not yet come out)
And Are not already covered by NetFlix instant view
2. A small catalog of remnant movies and documentaries, in sub-VHS quality
In comparison, the $10/mo subscription to Netflix allows access to:
1. Every movie ever made in DVD quality (or streaming in significantly better-than-Hulu quality)
2.
And everything available on every device imaginable (Wii! iPad!)
2.
And everything in significantly higher quality than Hulu
3.
And no ads
To top it all off, the 'episodes from the current season but more than five eps back for series which NetFlix doesn't stream' gap can be filled in on a per-episode basis of $2/ep by iTunes itself, for the handful of times a year it is wanted/needed.
As a result, Hulu at $10/mo makes sense only for people who do not have Netflix already (and do not watch movies), enjoy crappy quality streaming with ads (I'm assuming here ... perhaps the streaming quality for Hulu Plus will also get an upgrade), and who buy more than five episodes of current-season shows which aired more than five episodes back.
Even for your stated usecase (picking up a show halfway through the season): unless you do this with multiple shows every month (again, you can get 5 episodes of any series from iTunes for the same price as one month of Hulu) then Hulu Plus doesn't make sense. I'd argue that if this is happening to you more than once or twice a year (perhaps 20 eps you have to buy because they are outside the Hulu window ... which, again, is equivalent to just 4 months of Hulu Plus access), you are in a distinct minority.
Folks needing this for 60 or more episodes per year (12 months of Hulu Plus) would be rare indeed. That's just shy of three whole series being "caught up" in the window between the eps falling off the Hulu window ans the DVDs coming out for them over the summer. Granted, for them, it's a great deal. I just don't think there are enough of those folks around to sustain Hulu as a business.