Before hulu was actually established, you were able to go to the website for the tv station and watch the episode of a series that you missed because of work or school or what ever reason. It was only there for a weak, but you did not have to miss the episode, even if it was with the original commercials from when the episode was aired. It was a completely free service.
Then hulu was formed and then the episodes started appearing on hulu and the tv station websites stopped airing the series. Then hulu started demanding that you pay a monthly fee to have the right to watch the more popular series. This ended up cutting into the profits of cable and satalite companies, because hulu started purchasing the solo streaming rights and the cable and satalite companies started to have to pay hulu to stream those episodes.
Personally, I refuse to watch any hulu supported stream of any series or movie, because they took a completely free service with a customer satisfaction of nearing 100% and started profiting and charging for the service in exchange for the customer satisfaction. I will never support any business that puts their profits before their customers and this is what hulu does. This is why, I will not watch any hulu stream on the xfinity tv to go on demand.