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Hulu Drops Price of Ad-Supported Service to $5.99/Month, but Raises Live TV Price

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Hulu today announced a revised pricing structure, which will see it cutting the cost of its base streaming tier just days after Netflix announced a price hike.

Hulu's base service, which offers access to more than 85,000 episodes of on-demand television and thousands of movies, is now priced at $5.99 per month, down from $7.99 per month. Hulu's base tier is ad supported, so subscribers do need to watch a limited number of ads.

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Hulu's ad-free plan continues to offer the same content at the same price, $11.99, with no pricing cuts enacted for that plan.

The Hulu+ Live TV service is getting more expensive with Hulu now charging $44.99 per month, up from $39.99 per month. Hulu Live TV is Hulu's live television service, offering the same on-demand content along with access to 60 live sports, news, and entertainment channels.

The new pricing changes will go into effect on February 26 for new subscribers, while existing subscribers will see the pricing changes enabled in the subsequent billing cycle after February 26.

Earlier this month, Hulu rival Netflix announced that its "Basic" tier for SD streaming will be priced at $9, up from $8, while its "Standard" HD tier will rise in price from $11 to $13 per month.

Netflix's "Premium" tier, which allows subscribers to access 4K video, will go up from $14 per month to $16 per month. Netflix's pricing changes went into effect on January 15 for new subscribers, while existing subscribers will see price increases over the next three months.

Article Link: Hulu Drops Price of Ad-Supported Service to $5.99/Month, but Raises Live TV Price
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/01/23/hulu-adjusts-pricing-structure/
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Still for the limited movies and TV shows they charge to much for no ads. It should be 8 to 9.99 per month since they do not have all channels or full series shows. Hulu is loosing its way on offerings and it’s owned by all these studios who do not even give them the programming to offer. I cancelled this last week as you can stream off your cable provider on demand for free or watch online for free through other authorized services.
 
Magicjf said:
Still for the limited movies and TV shows they charge to much for no ads. It should be 8 to 9.99 per month since they do not have all channels or full series shows. Hulu is loosing its way on offerings and it’s owned by all these studios who do not even give them the programming to offer. I cancelled this last week as you can stream off your cable provider on demand for free or watch online for free through other authorized services.
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I agree on the movies, but the TV show offering is far and above anything I can find on demand (and I have access to Spectrum/Xfinity/ and Sling on demand) and they usually offer the newest season or the last newest season of tv shows. I guess it just comes down to what kind of tv shows you watch, I freakin love Hulu though.
 
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I wonder if existing Hulu+ Live subscribers with no commercials will be grandfathered in to the current price.
 
These live streaming services will soon be as expensive as cable. I called my cable company Comcast and got my bill down a lot because I was no longer in a contract and they offered me a 1 yr promotion no contract for a low price. Better than streaming as I get way more channels with cable than I’d ever get from streaming and price works out to be better with cable.
 
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MacRumors said:
Hulu's ad-free plan continues to offer the same content at the same price, $11.99, with no pricing cuts enacted for that plan.
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I have used the ad-free service over the past few years.

I might switch back to the ad-supported Hulu, or cancel it all together. It seems like they lost a lot of content over the past 1-2 years.

Maybe subscribe back up after a while to catch back up, then cancel again.

JGIGS said:
Netflix pricing and Hulu pricing going up up up! Time to glue that cable back together.
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Unity451 said:
Remember back when we were all saving money by cutting the cord... yeah, me either.
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redbeard331 said:
Soon all these streaming tv options will be as much as cable!
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MrGuder said:
These live streaming services will soon be as expensive as cable.
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If people are canceling their cable sub to save money, and then signing up to a bunch of streaming subs and keep those subs all the time, then they are clearly doing it wrong.

One of the best things about streaming services is that you can easily sign up for them but also easily and quickly cancel them. This is not something that can be done easily with cable subs.

Rotate the streaming subs throughout the year, catch up on content while you have access to it, and move on.
 
I've been a Hulu subscriber for many years and was an "ads-free tier" customer, but this past month I decided that there wasn't anything on my Hulu tier I wanted to see to justify the subscription fee. Further, there wasn't anything on their higher priced tiers I would pay their higher subscription costs to see. Frankly, across the board when it comes to services like Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and etc. they've kind of gone off the rails with "original content" I'm not interested in and cut back on the kind of content I originally signed up to watch. They're rapidly approaching the point where their content is not much better than the cable cord I cut. I suspect it won't be long before I drop Netflix for the same reason. Amazon Prime gets a bit if a pass because I use them for shopping with free shipping as well, the video being just a nice side benefit. But their original content is no better than the others.
 
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I got this weird device from a store and hooked it up to my TV, and now I get live TV for free! Who knew this was available? They call it an "antenna". It was 35 bucks, and now I watch TV for FREE.
 
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I only use the ad fed service, not live TV, so this is great news. It’s not very often when something goes down in price these days.
 
We use Hulu to catch up on TV shows we missed without having to sit through commercials. Plus the discount I get on iTunes gift cards make the $12/month charge a no brainer. But bravo to Hulu for dropping the price - especially when streaming services are raising prices more and more nowadays.
 
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Unity451 said:
Remember back when we were all saving money by cutting the cord... yeah, me either.
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Cable is a good choice for people who want a lot of live TV, and will likely be so for a while yet.

MrGuder said:
These live streaming services will soon be as expensive as cable. I called my cable company Comcast and got my bill down a lot because I was no longer in a contract and they offered me a 1 yr promotion no contract for a low price. Better than streaming as I get way more channels with cable than I’d ever get from streaming and price works out to be better with cable.
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Yeah I did the same. None of the streaming cable services offer all the channels I want, so back to cable I went. Paying about the same as internet + streaming services since bundling cable and internet gets you a price break on both services.

mtngoatjoe said:
I got this weird device from a store and hooked it up to my TV, and now I get live TV for free! Who knew this was available? They call it an "antenna". It was 35 bucks, and now I watch TV for FREE.
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A fatuous comment.
 
Unity451 said:
Remember back when we were all saving money by cutting the cord... yeah, me either.
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We only have Netflix. If you buy into every streaming service, then yeah, that's going to suck.

Netflix lets me stream what I want to see, when I want, without commercials, in 4K. The cord will charge me extra for 1080p.

Netflix says they're going up to $16 and I just shrug. This is a non-issue.
 
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Eorlas said:
We only have Netflix. If you buy into every streaming service, then yeah, that's going to suck.

Netflix lets me stream what I want to see, when I want, without commercials, in 4K. The cord will charge me extra for 1080p.

Netflix says they're going up to $16 and I just shrug. This is a non-issue.
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Netflix is a great option for many people, but a lot of people like certain shows or certain networks who don't have agreements with Netflix. Before long it's easy to imagine how all these piecemeal services add up to a cable bill.

This is by design because the studios are protecting their revenue. Just like in the post-contract wireless arena. Everyone I know is paying more than they were with 2 year contracts unless they switched to prepaid or kept their old phone.
 
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