One of life’s great annoyances (Why do I pay for Hulu but still have to sit through ads?) may be about to get mitigated. Kind of.
Hulu is reportedly thinking about offering ad-free streaming – but there’s a catch.
Netflix and Amazon Prime, for instance, offer ad-free streaming for all subscribers. Hulu’s plan, according to the Wall Street Journal, is to create another, more expensive tier for ad-free streaming.
From the WSJ:
Hulu’s code name for the project is “NOAH,” which stands for “No Ads Hulu,” the people familiar with the matter said. One of the people said the ad-free option could launch as early as this fall and be priced at around $12 to $14 a month.
Such a price point, relatively high in the streaming world, would show that Hulu and its owners don’t want to encourage large numbers of existing subscribers to shift to the new ad-free service.
That’s $4 to $6 more than Hulu’s regular subscription service, and $2 to $4 more expensive than Netflix.
It’s clear that Hulu wants to explore all options in how to compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, and other streaming platforms. The company has been making a lot of moves to produce original content and land high-profile exclusives as of late.
But would you pay $14 a month for Hulu? That’s dicey.
Image via Garrett Heath, Flickr Creative Commons
