News Corp., NBCU and Disney, the three media giants behind the streaming site say Hulu has been profitable for two quarters now, with over $100 million in revenue coming from advertisers. Of course $100 million is a drop in the bucket compared to profits from "traditional media" outlets.
On top of the subscription model, Hulu is expected to eventually add as many commercial breaks as current TV has, 9 minutes for every 21 minutes of programming.
Despite being the second most popular streaming video site behind YouTube, Nielsen Online reports that unique viewership has almost flatlined, still growing but barely.