Hulu says it will kill off free tier, push free shows to partners like Yahoo

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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in General Discussion
Hulu on Monday announced that it's discontinuing its free service in favor of its paid tiers, though people will still be able to watch some videos at no cost elsewhere -- including through Yahoo's new streaming TV site, Yahoo View.




Customers will be notified of the change over the next several days, and encouraged to take a free trial of a paid subscription, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Hulu has gradually worked to discourage free viewing, for instance making those videos harder to find on its website. Free material has never been playable on mobile devices or set-tops.

The Yahoo View partnership is extensive, to the extent that videos there use Hulu's player and even show ads sold by Hulu, though revenue is still being split. As before, viewers can watch archival content along with the last five episodes of current shows from ABC, NBC, and Fox, with an eight-day wait after first broadcast.

At the moment Hulu offers two paid tiers -- one with "limited" commercials for $7.99 per month, and a "No Commercials" option costing $11.99. On top of mobile/set-top viewing, these enable next-day access to new episodes, and a much broader content library including Hulu exclusives.

In May the company confirmed plans to launch live TV streaming in 2017, which will presumably cost extra, though details are still unknown.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    slprescottslprescott Posts: 765member
    I'm curious if this is part of a larger trend to stop providing free tiers of streaming media.  An unsustainable model, financially?

    Apple Music does not offer a free tier other than Beats 1, but Spotify does.  Now Hulu is discontinuing a free tier.  Is the overall trajectory toward fully subscription-based paid services?

    On the other hand, traditional media has a long history of free advertizing-based content (radio, over-the-air TV), so maybe that sort of online model will always exist for a segment of the viewers.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Good. I never did bother to watch Hulu. I can't stand commercials.
    williamlondon
  • Reply 3 of 7
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    slprescott said:
    I'm curious if this is part of a larger trend to stop providing free tiers of streaming media.  An unsustainable model, financially?

    Apple Music does not offer a free tier other than Beats 1, but Spotify does.  Now Hulu is discontinuing a free tier.  Is the overall trajectory toward fully subscription-based paid services?

    On the other hand, traditional media has a long history of free advertizing-based content (radio, over-the-air TV), so maybe that sort of online model will always exist for a segment of the viewers.
    There is no money to be made with free tier streaming services. Just ask Spotify with 30 million paid subscribers and still not making money. Free tier subscribers tend to be fickle and will jump ship at the drop of a hat. The handwriting is on the wall. We just need to see it clearly. I would also suspect that free tier subscribers would be more likely to pirate than paying subscribers. As for traditional media they have fought tooth and nail to prevent recording and ad skipping technology to no avail. And traditional broadcast television is compelled by law to provide free, ad supported content as a condition for using the public airwaves. It's always a possibility that the government will someday do the same for the "public" bandwidth.
    edited August 2016
  • Reply 4 of 7
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,311member
    Spirit's user base keeps growing and they keep making more and more money, but they are also losing more and more money at the same time.  They've always been in the red and have to keep borrowing more and more money.  That free service is a big chain around their neck.  The problem is, if they stop it, they lose the majority of their user base, they no longer look so good and the money they need will stop coming in and they be out of business even sooner.

    Apple is already at least half of their paying users in a faction of the time.  I don't think Apple is losing money at all with Apple Music.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    evilutionevilution Posts: 1,399member
    Ya-who?
    you mean the people who had a good search page until Google and had a good email service until Google and are now desperately trying to stay current?
  • Reply 6 of 7
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    Unsurprising. They figured out that, when given a CHOICE, people won't pay to watch commercials. So they take away the choice, rather than removing the commercials from the subscription tier. And there we have the "invisible hand" fisting the consumers for fun and profit.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,054member
    apple ][ said:
    Good. I never did bother to watch Hulu. I can't stand commercials.
    $11.99 tier never had commercials. I subscribed it for 1 free week when I want to watch a whole season of Gotham and then stop renewal. That's why they don't make money on free tv.
    edited August 2016
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