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.
Except it’s not Ad-free. Hulu is completely free if you watch content within your web-browser. That’s what drew me in way back in 2008 when I’d watch it on my lunch break and catch up with Daily Show episodes or Family Guy. Then I got a Boxee and an iPad and Apple TV and Xbox and decided to fork over $8 a month. To my surprise, Hulu’s pay model wasn’t ad-free, it was a fee to watch Hulu on devices that weren’t a desktop web-browser. You want Hulu on your phone, tablet, TV? That’s $8 a month.
The advertising continued. In fact, as Hulu subscribers grew, the amount of ads increased. Hulu is a streaming service that has as many ads as watching the show on your TV. Unfortunately, you can’t fast forward these ads. A DVR with a cable subscription is still a better deal if you loathe advertising.
The $12 announcement today reduces ads but you still see pre-roll and post-roll aka Bookend ads on almost every TV show or movie that Hulu serves up. It’s less likely your show will stop to display an ad while you’re watching content but is that really worth 50% more? Amazon Prime and Netflix don’t show ads period. The advantage of Hulu is they show you television shows the day after they’ve aired, not months later like Netflix.
This seems like a compromise that never should have came to fruition. Hulu should have found out the cost of making their service completely ad free and if that’s $15 a month, fine. Fully ad-free would have my attention.
It’s still easier to steal television and occasionally put checks in the mail to Sony and CBS television as a thank you. I hope someone comes along and allows me to subscribe to individual TV networks for $5 a month ad free and on-demand. I can queue up ESPN or Game of Thrones whenever I’d like and just pay a company per channel.
That would be awesome.