Hulu hikes prices for on-demand streaming television

AppleInsider

Subscribers to Hulu's on-demand streaming will need to pony up an extra $1 per month -- but pricing on Live TV and Disney bundles remain unchanged.

On Tuesday, Hulu began informing subscribers that base-plan subscribers would be seeing a price hike starting October 8. Both ad-supported and ad-free programs will see their prices increase from $5.99 to $6.99 and $11.99 to $12.99 per month, respectively.

As pointed out by Variety, the upcoming price hike marks the first-ever for Hulu's no-ads tier. In addition, it's the first in nearly three years for Hulu's ad-supported video-on-demand package.

Those who subscribe to Hulu + Live TV will not see a price increase, their plans will remain steady at $64.99/month with ads, or $70.99/month. Those who subscribe to the ad-supported Disney Bundle, which includes Disney Plus and ESPN Plus, will continue to pay $13.99 a month, as well.

The price increase may push more users to subscribe to the Disney Bundle, which now offers a 36% discount compared to purchasing all three packages together.

Apple TV+, which launched in November of 2019, still remains one of the cheapest streaming options available to consumers. Those who buy a new Apple device are given three months of Apple TV+ for free, while new subscribers without Apple devices can get a 7-day free trial. After the trial ends, users pay just $4.99 for Apple's ever-expanding catalog of films, TV+ shows, and documentaries.

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gatorguy

A bundle was my initial plan, but I have no interest in standalone ESPN+ and I seem to recall I couldn't do ad-free Hulu with the bundle anyway, although I could be mistaken.

hmlongco

So, it's cable TV all over again with regular price hikes. I appreciate the article however, as it reminded me that I hadn't yet cancelled my Hulu subscription.

I just corrected that oversight.

tmay

gatorguy said:

A bundle was my initial plan, but I have no interest in standalone ESPN+ and I seem to recall I couldn't do ad-free Hulu with the bundle anyway, although I could be mistaken.

Gatorguy,

I've done Hulu ad free and Disney+ in the past. A few hoops to jump through, but it works. Probably easiest to do Hulu ad free signup, and then add Disney+, or other offerings.

I watched The Mandalorian, and a few Disney Films, then canceled. I'll re-up after a few new Star Wars Universe series arrive.

m68000

hmlongco said:

So, it's cable TV all over again with regular price hikes. I appreciate the article however, as it reminded me that I hadn't yet cancelled my Hulu subscription.

I just corrected that oversight.

Let’s hope it’s not cable tv all over again.  One price change, a small one at that, in three years is not that bad.  Now if it becomes a yearly thing,  that is a different story.

appleish

When will 'peak streaming' occur? Who wants to subscribe to a dozen $12 to $20 streaming services, much less Hulu's overpriced Live TV. Collect them all together and just call it "Comcast."

edited September 2021

rezwits

M68000 said:

hmlongco said:

So, it's cable TV all over again with regular price hikes. I appreciate the article however, as it reminded me that I hadn't yet cancelled my Hulu subscription.

I just corrected that oversight.

Let’s hope it’s not cable tv all over again.  One price change, a small one at that, in three years is not that bad.  Now if it becomes a yearly thing,  that is a different story.

Exactly tho, that's the f-ing thing.  Disney already went up +$1, now it's Hulu's turn for +$1! Bastards!  It's like another $25,000,000 a month! now an extra $50 Mill a month.  Pretty soon the bundle discount will all but have evaporated.  You would think, oh we'll just drop ESPN+ right?  But heck, ESPN has like ZIP left on their App or Channel via Cable/Dish, compared the App with ESPN+, that's ESPN on steroids!  ESPN+ has everything practically compared to ESPN, like NFL Primetime, which has the re-caps of NFL at night so you won't miss a step, nope that's ESPN+. I mean tons of stuff is on ESPN+!!

The only thing I can say is I do enjoy ad free, but SHOE, this is NOW more expensive than NetFlix!

So, it's gonna be a back and forth between them now!  It's a min max $1 for $1 every so damn often as they can marginally make the "Call" to raise the price by a $1.

But what's sick is Disney has the advantage because they can sit there with definitely better premium stuff, but be able to go:

This year Disney goes up $1
This year Hulu goes up $1
This year ESPN+ goes up $1
repeat...

Where as NetFlix is like, ummmm. +$2? cool? whew
Wait two years, +$2? cool? whew...

The thing that sucks the most tho, is THIS is how their lame asses fight inflation, aka "Raising the Rent..."
Which is what all this comes down to, get people to pay monthly dues &&& LOCK UM IN, raise the rents when the inflation goes up...

While everyone else NOT IN ON THAT inflation fighting system has to figure out things like the Monopoly dude, with the picture with him pulling out the lining of his pockets, like? aint got nothing left...

Laters...
2¢

djames4242

Appleish said:

When will 'peak streaming' occur? Who wants to subscribe to a dozen $12 to $20 streaming services, much less Hulu's overpriced Live TV. Collect them all together and just call it "Comcast."

Not sure I’d call it overpriced. We switched from Comcast’s triple play bundle to a combination of CenturyLink fiber, Hulu Live, and Ooma. Our download speed is nearly three times as fast and our upload speed is roughly 70 times as fast and there’s no data cap. We get more channels than we had before, a better DVR, plus all the add-free streaming content. Ooma gives us two phone numbers (one of which we use roughly once every two years to send a fax), great robocall blocking, a service that rings our mobiles simultaneously with our home phone, and voicemails go to my email. All of this totals about half what we were paying Comcast before. 

If you want to call anything overpriced, it’s Comcast and its predatory bundling.

mcdave

At some point Apple TV+ will become the most viable service as everyone else prices themselves out.

tmay

rezwits said:

M68000 said:

hmlongco said:

So, it's cable TV all over again with regular price hikes. I appreciate the article however, as it reminded me that I hadn't yet cancelled my Hulu subscription.

I just corrected that oversight.

Let’s hope it’s not cable tv all over again.  One price change, a small one at that, in three years is not that bad.  Now if it becomes a yearly thing,  that is a different story.

Exactly tho, that's the f-ing thing.  Disney already went up +$1, now it's Hulu's turn for +$1! Bastards!  It's like another $25,000,000 a month! now an extra $50 Mill a month.  Pretty soon the bundle discount will all but have evaporated.  You would think, oh we'll just drop ESPN+ right?  But heck, ESPN has like ZIP left on their App or Channel via Cable/Dish, compared the App with ESPN+, that's ESPN on steroids!  ESPN+ has everything practically compared to ESPN, like NFL Primetime, which has the re-caps of NFL at night so you won't miss a step, nope that's ESPN+. I mean tons of stuff is on ESPN+!!

The only thing I can say is I do enjoy ad free, but SHOE, this is NOW more expensive than NetFlix!

So, it's gonna be a back and forth between them now!  It's a min max $1 for $1 every so damn often as they can marginally make the "Call" to raise the price by a $1.

But what's sick is Disney has the advantage because they can sit there with definitely better premium stuff, but be able to go:

This year Disney goes up $1
This year Hulu goes up $1
This year ESPN+ goes up $1
repeat...

Where as NetFlix is like, ummmm. +$2? cool? whew
Wait two years, +$2? cool? whew...

The thing that sucks the most tho, is THIS is how their lame asses fight inflation, aka "Raising the Rent..."
Which is what all this comes down to, get people to pay monthly dues &&& LOCK UM IN, raise the rents when the inflation goes up...

While everyone else NOT IN ON THAT inflation fighting system has to figure out things like the Monopoly dude, with the picture with him pulling out the lining of his pockets, like? aint got nothing left...

Laters...
2¢

Services depend on subscriber desire for instant gratification and immediate access to all of the latest content. Counter that with short stints of subscriptions, over a variety of streaming services, and save a lot of dinero.

sdw2001

djames4242 said:

Appleish said:

When will 'peak streaming' occur? Who wants to subscribe to a dozen $12 to $20 streaming services, much less Hulu's overpriced Live TV. Collect them all together and just call it "Comcast."

Not sure I’d call it overpriced. We switched from Comcast’s triple play bundle to a combination of CenturyLink fiber, Hulu Live, and Ooma. Our download speed is nearly three times as fast and our upload speed is roughly 70 times as fast and there’s no data cap. We get more channels than we had before, a better DVR, plus all the add-free streaming content. Ooma gives us two phone numbers (one of which we use roughly once every two years to send a fax), great robocall blocking, a service that rings our mobiles simultaneously with our home phone, and voicemails go to my email. All of this totals about half what we were paying Comcast before. 

If you want to call anything overpriced, it’s Comcast and its predatory bundling.

Yeah, I switched from FiOS TV and Internet to upgraded FiOS Internet and YouTube TV.   I'm saving at least $70 a month this way.  We had Prime and Netflix before, I just started paying for Apple TV after a year and a half free, and I get HBO Max free through my cell (AT&T).  We also have Disney+ and Discovery+.  

YouTube TV is hands-down better than cable.  It's half the price and has a far better DVR.  Watching it anywhere on any device is seamless.  

mplsp

Yes - it is cable all over again, just more fragmented. 

Everyone complained about cable - it was a monopoly with all the problems of a monopoly. High prices, crappy service and they chose the packages so you ended up paying through the teeth for the 3 or 4 channels you actually cared about (but did get the benefit of 32 home shopping channels and 15 versions of cspan.) people were clamoring for an al a carte option. 

With streaming, we thought we’d have that al a carte option. Except The ‘desirable’ channels are spread across multiple corporations- Disney, Netflix, HBO, ESPN, etc, so now you have to subscribe to multiple different streaming services to get what you want (Plus broadband.) Essentially cable got broken up into a bunch of smaller packages so it’s still not al a carte. You just pay the same bill to multiple providers.