Finally bowing to pressure from subscribers continually bugged by ad breaks, Hulu announced on Wednesday (September 2nd) that it will be introducing a new, advertisement-free tier in its subscription service – but for a price.
The TV and movie streaming company, which had previously stood alone among the competition because it didn’t allow subscribers to skip ad breaks for any cost in its price structuring, installed another, more expensive version of its service for $ 11.99 per month. However, it will still be maintaining its existing, $ 7.99 tier which contains what it describes as “limited commercials”.
Season four of Mindy Kaling’s ‘The Mindy Project’ will be coming exclusively to Hulu in 2016
The new tier will offer exactly the same programming, although some of the big hitters in its stable, such as ‘New Girl’ and ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, will run a short 15-second reel of ads before each episode, and a 30-second one afterwards, but won’t interrupt them.
More: Season 4 of ‘The Mindy Project’ will premiere on Hulu this September
Hulu is hoping that it will be able to boost its subscriber base, with a following of 9 million at the moment – less than a quarter of that of Netflix’s 41 million – by finally following the pack and allowing its users to skip ads. However, the new ad-free subscription package is more expensive than Netflix’s equivalent, which is $ 7.99 per month.
Hulu’s CEO Mike Hopkins said in a press release: “We did a lot of research on this. We wouldn’t have undertaken this lightly. You can split people into two categories: ad avoiders and ad acceptors. There are clearly people who just are not going to buy Hulu because there are ads. We think we can bring them back into the fold with this new content and this new choice.”
Recently, Hulu grabbed headlines by snapping up the 76 movies and TV shows that Netflix will be losing throughout September, including The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Star Trek: Into Darkness. Earlier this year, it announced that it picked up ‘The Mindy Project’ and commissioned a fourth season, after Fox had cancelled the Mindy Kaling comedy vehicle back in May.
So, the streaming wars continue apace, with Hulu making several bold moves to muscle in on the action.
More: Mindy Kaling reveals that she “loves” shooting sex scenes
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