The streaming content wars are heating up, and thus far it seems to come down to one of two worthy contenders: Venerable DVD-by-mail provider Netflix in one corner, slugging it out with ad-supported, studio-funded rival Hulu Plus, who earlier this month brought their popular service to iOS devices (and more) at long last.

Unfortunately, we’re not all made of money, so if you’re sitting there wondering which service offers the most bang for the buck, wonder no more: Just read on and you be the judge -- or we’ll make the decision for you.



Netflix Wins in Feature Films, Hands Down (For Now)

By our count, Hulu’s website offers just north of 1,000 feature films (1,069 to be exact, at this writing). Unfortunately, the paid Hulu Plus service offers only a fraction of even that meager selection. If you’re more of a movie buff more than a fan of TV shows, there’s simply no contest -- Netflix is the clear winner, especially come September 1 when they beef up their streaming catalog with titles from pay-cable movie channel EPIX.

Itself a joint venture between Viacom, Lions Gate and MGM, the recently announced deal with EPIX is estimated to bring in $180 million additional annual revenue for the premium movie network. It’s good for Netflix as well, which has already seen a nice upward spike in their stock price, and should help add new subscribers--as well as keeping existing ones from fleeing to competing services nipping at their heels, such as Hulu Plus.

Netflix also has the edge on Hulu Plus when it comes to advertising--or rather a lack thereof, since there simply isn’t any to be found within its streaming content in the first place. Netflix’s cheapest $8.99 per month plan gets you unlimited instant watching as well as the advantage of one DVD out at a time, which helps ease the pain a little when a title you want to stream isn’t available. (For infrequent streamers, there’s an even cheaper $4.99 per month plan which gets you one DVD at a time plus two hours of streaming, but no premium Starz Play titles, which currently makes up a big chunk of the theatrical streaming catalog.)

Not to be outdone, Hulu is absolutely free as long as you’re content to sit at your computer for viewing and willing to put up with a few brief commercial interruptions. The $9.99 per month Hulu Plus gets you even more ad-supported content to watch, with the ability to take it on the go with your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, as well as in your living room on the Playstation 3 (and early next year, the Xbox 360) and on select televisions or Blu-ray players from Samsung (also Sony and VIZIO starting this fall). But as we mentioned earlier, a lot of Hulu.com’s eclectic catalog is simply MIA on Hulu Plus, at least for now.

TV Shows Are Where It’s At on Hulu

The most fair comparison of Netflix and Hulu Plus comes by lining up their television show offerings, so that’s where we’ll now devote most of our attention, in an effort to bring our dear readers a sampling of what each service offers (both new and old) and where a particular service has an advantage -- or disadvantage.

We hit the respective websites (as well as the Hulu Plus app on our iPad and iPhone) and did a little math to get a quick glance at who’s got the most content to offer. Netflix currently features 1,036 TV show titles available for streaming, although that number is somewhat inflated since it counts each season as a title--meaning the actual title count is much lower.

By comparison, Hulu Plus currently features 1,006 television show titles, and they’re not cheating like Netflix--one title on Hulu includes all seasons and episodes therein, which means Hulu Plus wins as far as sheer amount of television content available. (The Hulu Plus service itself claims over 120 seasons and 2,000 episodes just in its paid content library.)

Hulu has gone on record claiming that its Plus service is not a replacement for cable or satellite, but rather a “complement” to it--presumably to catch primetime shows you might have missed the first time around. But with DVRs so prevalent in cable and satellite set top boxes these days--not to mention iOS apps to program your DVR from afar, should you forget before you leave the house--the $9.99 per month for Hulu Plus seems like a dubious expense for casual viewers.



Same Shows, Not All Episodes Between the Two Services

You might expect there to be some crossover between the services, and you’d be right--a number of popular TV shows appear on both websites. However, just because a title may be listed on both sites doesn’t mean they always share equal footing.

Take a random show from the early ‘70s such as the dramatic mishaps of Emergency!, for example. While Netflix offers all six of the seven seasons of that show currently available on DVD from Universal, many of the seasons are missing a number of episodes for reasons unknown. For now, Hulu Plus only offers the first four seasons, but the content is largely complete with the exception of one episode--“The Mascot” from season one, which Hulu claims is unavailable due to “rights issues” (likely a music licensing hurdle that hasn’t been cleared yet).

Netflix also offers a few TV shows that haven’t even been released on DVD, much to the chagrin of their fans, such as the Craig T. Nelson vehicle Coach. While the first four seasons have been released on DVD, in a rare switch, the remaining five seasons are streaming only--although once again, missing random episodes, which ought to drive completists crazy. But at least that’s better than Hulu, where Coach fans will find only a ghost town for now.



Can I Cut The Cord On My Cable Yet?

What most people want to know when it comes to streaming television shows is: Can I ditch my satellite or cable company and save a bundle of dough? That mostly depends on how much television you watch per month, but the answer (at least for now) is largely no, simply because certain shows aren’t available on either service.

Case in point: The unfortunately cancelled Julia Louis-Dreyfus vehicle that finally broke the “Seinfeld curse,” The New Adventures of Old Christine. While Netflix offers the first three out of five total seasons for the CBS show on DVD, neither service offers them for streaming at all. (Advantage here goes to Apple and iTunes, where all five seasons can be purchased right now--and even in HD to boot--for a wallet-busting $2.99 per episode or $49.99 per season. Ouch!)

But what about shows that are still on the air? With the September new seasons just around the corner, Hulu Plus is promising fans of popular current shows such as Glee, The Office, Desperate Housewives and 30 Rock a “season ticket” for watching every episode of shows from ABC, NBC and FOX.

Song-and-dance sleeper hit Glee is MIA on Netflix except for DVD, and even then they only offer half of the first season for now--the second half is expected in the middle of September when the full season collection finally hits stores. By comparison, Hulu Plus has all 23 episodes available to stream today, and should have new episodes up soon after they start airing.

NBC’s The Office is a mixed bag; Netflix offers the first five seasons on both DVD and streaming (and in HD, with the proper hardware), but the fate of season six appears to be DVD only for now (that release is due on September 7). Hulu Plus offers Dunder-Mifflin fans every episode of all six seasons today. (Both services also offer the original U.K. version for streaming as well.)

For all its goofy cult appeal, Tina Fey’s 30 Rock also gets a mixed reception from Netflix--the first three seasons are available on DVD and streaming (in HD), with season four coming to DVD on September 21, which Netflix currently isn’t promising just yet. But Hulu Plus isn’t a clear winner, since they only offer seasons two through four right now, although they promise new episodes the day after their original air date.

The situation is even more murky for Wisteria Lane junkies jonesing for their Desperate Housewives on Netflix. The first five seasons of the pulpy nighttime favorite are on DVD and available, but only two of the more recent ones--season four and five--are available for streaming (with HD as an option, at least). Hulu Plus boasts all six seasons, although at this writing, select episodes from seasons three and five were missing due to technical issues.

Netflix appears to have an advantage when it comes to paid cable TV shows, however, offering the first five seasons of Showtime’s Weeds on both DVD and streaming, while Hulu Plus comes up completely empty-handed. Other popular shows like Dexter are also MIA on Hulu Plus and at least partially represented on Netflix (all four seasons on DVD, but only the first two are available to stream). For whatever reason, Showtime isn’t letting Netflix stream either of these shows in HD, which is a bummer.



But What if I'm Just Jonesin' for the Classics?

If your television tastes are a little more on the classic side and you’re too impatient to wait for Netflix to send those DVDs, Hulu Plus most likely has your fix. Among the complete shows ready to stream on Hulu Plus that are DVD-only on Netflix are all three seasons of the campy ‘60s sci-fi show Lost in Space, the first season of the rock-and-roll radio comedy WKRP in Cincinnati and all five seasons of the quirky Ally McBeal (with the exception of two episodes that appear to have rights issues which are still being ironed out).

It’s not a surprise, since all three are Fox-owned shows (a Hulu partner along with NBC Universal and Disney-owned ABC), but there are notable exceptions, such as all nine seasons of The X-Files, which are on equal footing since they’re available to stream on both Netflix and Hulu Plus. The same also applies to Jason Bateman’s popular sitcom Arrested Development, which ran for three seasons before getting cancelled in 2006, giving Bateman time to appear in every other big-budget movie getting made these days.

Despite having a partner in NBC Universal, Hulu Plus doesn’t always have a total lock on complete seasons of their classic shows. The Incredible Hulk, the late ‘70s comic book saga featuring Bill Bixby as the title character, is only represented on Hulu Plus for three out of its five total seasons, while Netflix has ‘em all. (Sadly, neither service has the cheese-tastic Spider-Man TV series from the late ‘70s starring Nicholas Hammond, which has never been released to DVD. Shucks!)

Likewise, Hulu Plus only has the first season of David Hasselhoff’s ‘80s supercar show Knight Rider for streaming, while Netflix gets all four seasons. (The 2008 remake is available to stream on Hulu Plus through September 19, but is DVD-only on Netflix, for those of you who might have watched it when it was first on TV.)



OK, So Which One Should I Get?

It’s a toss-up as to which service is the better value, because everyone has different tastes, especially when it comes to television shows. Casual TV viewers who like a wide variety of feature films are clearly better served by the commercial-free experience that Netflix offers, and it appears that Hollywood may finally be catching on to the fact that we want more streaming programming, right now.

Without a doubt, Hulu Plus is the leader when it comes to recent and ongoing TV shows, and their selection of feature films isn’t bad, just limited for now, but growing each month. Everyone got excited when they heard that Hulu Plus was (finally) coming to iOS devices--until the reality sank in that advertising was still part of the package, despite coughing up a ten-spot each month for the “privilege” of having it in the first place. It will be interesting to see exactly how many of the current TV shows wind up being available when the new television season starts in September--and how soon they’ll get posted for viewing after they’ve aired. That alone may dictate the value of Hulu Plus for most viewers.

The easy solution--and we know it’s a bit of a cop out--is to just subscribe to both services, especially when light DVD renters can indulge in all the streaming they want from Netflix for less than the monthly cost of Hulu Plus. After all, we’re talking less than $20 per month for both, which is still affordable entertainment for most anyone these days, especially considering the skyrocketing cost of movie theatre tickets.

However, since we know you’re looking to Mac|Life to have all the answers, we’ll go with Netflix as the reigning champ for now. Not only is it cheaper to begin with at the base price of $8.99 per month, there’s simply more variety to watch with no intrusive ads and a rapidly-expanding catalog of content--plus, you’ll even get a handful of DVD rentals each month as part of the bargain. For the time being, Hulu Plus just can’t compete with that.



Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter.