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