Hulu one of the giants in on-demand streaming TV and Movies, will soon eliminate the free ad-supported streaming portion of it’s service in favor of it’s monthly subscription service. In 2010, Hulu launched a $7.99 ad-supported monthly subscription model with an expanded library and most recently an ad-free model for $11.99.
“For the past couple years, we’ve been focused on building a subscription service that provides the deepest, most personalized content experience possible to our viewers,” Hulu senior vice president Ben Smith said in a statement to the L.A. Times. “As we have continued to enhance that offering with new originals, exclusive acquisitions, and movies, the free service became very limited and no longer aligned with the Hulu experience or content strategy.”
Still Hulu’s content will retain a free home online through agreement with Yahoo. A new deal has been struck with the troubled tech giant Yahoo for much of the programming to appear on the new Yahoo View streaming site.
Hulu recently announced plans to add live-streaming video in 2017 with popular cable and TV channels. With first-run access to TV shows episodes the day after it airs, Hulu can get to be a more direct competitor with the other big VOD beasts like HBO Now, Amazon, and Netflix.
