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Hulu Introduces Ad-Free Subscription Plan for $12 a Month

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Hulu today revealed a new plan option that will grant subscribers immunity from the service's embedded advertisements by paying $11.99 each month instead of the traditional $7.99 (via Re/code). Available for new and existing users, Hulu's CEO Mike Hopkins notes that it took months for the various companies and providers available on the service to support the new subscription tier, but he still expects a "solid majority" of people to stick with the $7.99 option.

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Hopkins says getting the various rights owners for the Hulu catalog -- which includes TV shows from NBC, ABC and Fox, as well as stuff from other networks, plus movies (note the Epix deal it just signed), plus stuff Hulu is creating on its own -- to agree to the ad-free option took months.

Hulu is jointly owned by Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast's NBCUniversal, and those companies are heavily invested in the business of selling TV ads. Hulu won't come out and say this out loud, but the 50 percent price jump between the two versions is meant to give most of Hulu's 9 million subscribers a reason to keep the version they have, and not hasten the erosion of the ad model.
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A slight negative for some will come in the new tier's "exception shows," which will present users with bookended ads even when a subscriber is paying $12 per month. From ABC, NBC, and FOX, the seven exception shows are: New Girl, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Grey's Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, Marvel's Agents of Shield, and Grimm. Perhaps a minor silver lining: the exception shows won't include the timed ads in the middle of a video and will only include a 15-second pre-show and 30-second post-show commercial.

Users interested in signing up for Hulu Plus, or changing their current subscription to the new option, can do so over on Hulu's official website. The Hulu app is also available to download free from the App Store [Direct Link].

Article Link: Hulu Introduces Ad-Free Subscription Plan for $12 a Month
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/02/hulu-ad-free-subscription-plan/
thank god! i actually quit giving the annoying ads as a reason. will have to check it out again.
 
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Reactions: campyguy
Woo! Lots of the crappy shows (I mean this in a good way, I love crappy shows as background noise) that I used to watch on cable are on Hulu.

Ads were a dealbreaker for me before. Now I think I'm ready to jump in!
 
Pay $8 and you get ads?
Pay $12 and you still get ads?

This is as bad a deal as cable TV. It makes no freaking sense. Either give it to me for free with ads, or name your price and give it to me ad-free. Paying and still being subjected to ads is beyond ridiculous.
 
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Reactions: FriendlyMackle, hxlover904, Mr. Donahue and 15 others
Good start. I'd pay it for a couple months for specific shows, and then cancel once I have seen everything.

Now... allow ANY device to use the free ad-supported tier.

Do they want people to watch that free tier or not? I do want to catch up on missed current broadcasts, but I'm not going to pay $8/month to get on my iPad what is free on my Mac and over-the-air.

Stop making the distinction between iPad and Mac. Netflix, Crackle, HBO, Showtime, etc. don't. Yet another "exception" that is not friendly to people considering Hulu!
 
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Count me in. Only 1 of the 7 shows (with before and after commercials) is on my watch list so not a big deal. But hope this is temporary. I am surprised that they feel a small percent will jump on the no commercial price. The main reason I have DVR's is because I can skip commercials. Now I just need CBS All Access with a no commercial option and 90% of what I record will be covered.
 
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"No commercials" should mean no commercials. There can't be any exception if users are willing to pay higher price. I'm just glad Netflix has not caught up to this yet and I hope it never does.

d21mike said:
Count me in. Only 1 of the 7 shows (with before and after commercials) is on my watch list so not a big deal. But hope this is temporary. I am surprised that they feel a small percent will jump on the no commercial price. The main reason I have DVR's is because I can skip commercials. Now I just need CBS All Access with a no commercial option and 90% of what I record will be covered.
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That is just for now. In the future, they could add more "exclusive" shows and you may want to watch those shows.
 
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Reactions: hxlover904, jhfenton, jim.arrows and 3 others
Like, Like, Like, Like... I have such a strong hate for commercials, I would have paid more.

But part of me now thinks we must now truly brace ourselves for a huge increase of in-content ad placement...
 
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darkknight14 said:
Surely someone has to investigate the wording of 'AD FREE' when ads will still be played on select shows. So its not AD FREE but less ADS than you get with the LIMITED ADS model.
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The show itself is "ad free" in that the show is not interrupted by an ad since the ads are only pre and post show.
Not a deal breaker for me, personally. I was kind of getting used to the other ads anyway, because they were shorter and fewer than regular TV.

Have you tried watching a show on DirecTV lately? You have to scroll threw brightly colored spam within the guide itself to find your show, then up your health insurance coverage for the inevitable carpel tunnel syndrome you'll get from fast-forwarding so much through the frequent and numerous advertising onslaught they shove into your brain - even with a 30-second skip button... Hated that crap so much.
 
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Reactions: ohio.emt, poppe and Gasu E.
This is why I never got Hulu. I paid $7/month and still had to watch ads. Now they introduce a service without ads for $12/month? Sorry, but Netflix streaming is $8/month and I don't have to put up with ads. #Fail
 
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Reactions: Mr. Donahue, dysamoria and Jason83
I read this thinking "Wow, Hulu is getting serious about being a competitior to Netflix. First the licensing of the Epix library and now an ad-free plan" then I read about the exceptions. One step forward, two steps back. So basically if a show gets popular, it will get ads. If they advertise an ad-free plan, consumers are going to expect it to truly be ad-free. This is why it won't be a legit Netflix competitor.

I guess we now have to wait for the ad-free ad-free subscription plan.
 
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