It was rumored that Hulu was tossing around the idea of introducing an ad-free plan that would cost more, and yesterday Hulu did just that. The new ad-free tier on Hulu is $12 a month and won’t include ads on most of your TV shows. Current subscribers will get the option to upgrade anytime, and for only $4 a month it isn’t that big of a jump. When prices are compared to Netflix or Amazon, Hulu isn’t that much more and in fact the same price as many other choices now.
As I said some shows will still include pre and post roll ads depending on licensing agreements from networks:
Due to streaming rights, the shows below are not included in our No Commercials plan. You can still watch these shows interruption-free. They will play with a short commercial before and after each episode. The shows are: Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon A Time, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Scandal, New Girl, Grimm and How To Get Away With Murder.
The news comes after Hulu announced it would pick up Epix movies, ad-free of course, after Netflix dropped them after they said they would focus on more original content. While I’ll keep my Hulu subscription with ads many people will make the jump to the ad-free option to prevent get three to four ads each commercial break. For cable cutters the cost is piling up to cut the cord. Now Netflix, Hulu, Sling TV, HBO Go, and Amazon’s service is starting to cost the same as a traditional cable bundle but with more hassle.
Tell us if you’re going to upgrade to the ad-free plan for Hulu or stay with the current ad-support plan in the comments down below!