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[ivysaur12]

http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/hulu-may-offer-ad-free-subscription-option-report-1201542362/

Subscription VOD service Hulu is considering adding a more expensive subscription option sans commercials, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday.

In addition to maintaining its current $7.99 version with ads, Hulu would make a second version available for a price in the neighborhood of $12-14. While that price point would be more expensive than most SVOD options in the U.S. marketplace, the logic behind the move is that would avoid siphoning away the 9 million subscribers already paying for the current version.

But the new offering could help Hulu better compete with its biggest rivals, Netflix and Amazon Prime, which have both always been without ads. Hulu has been criticized for requiring for subs to pay but sit through ads; on the other hand, the dual revenue stream has drawn respect within the media industry.

Hulu did not respond to inquiry for comment.

Heard about this a while back and that it was supposed to happen in earlier this year, but then it never materialized. But here it is.

This is the best move, even if the price is a bit steep. Ad sales on digital are diminishing returns, and Hulu can't break into the original content game that Netflix and Amazon have until they do something like this. People don't want to watch ads when they're watching their stories, and the big networks are still going to offer ad content on their own websites. This is also a huge win for all the shows that have exclusive streaming deals with Hulu.

I'd also like them to finally equalize their webpage/iOS app/SmartTV content (why can't I watch Mr. Robot on my nice TV, Hulu?), but that's for another day.

 

[ivysaur12]

Not only did I post this in the wrong forum, but there also is now another topic about it! Cheers!