Hulu Is Raising Its Prices Again

Less than one yr after Hulu jacked up the worth of its Hulu with Live TV subscription package deal, the streaming service is getting ready to place one other dent in prospects’ wallets by elevating costs as soon as once more.

Beginning on Oct. 8, anybody who subscribes to considered one of Hulu’s on-demand plans, Hulu and Hulu with No Ads, shall be subjected to a $1 enhance, TechCrunch reports, which kind of seems like a pittance if you recall that the worth of Hulu’s Live TV bundles elevated by a whopping $10 apiece final yr. What which means in apply is that the ad-supported model of Hulu will now price $7 monthly, up from $6, whereas Hulu with No Ads will price $13 monthly, up from $12.

Thankfully, Hulu’s Live TV bundles haven’t been topic to any value hikes this yr, most likely as a result of making them any costlier would additional erode what little artifice is left to the concept that chopping the wire is in any means cheaper than shopping for a cable package deal.

Notably, the deliberate value hikes additionally received’t have an effect on any plan the place Hulu is bundled with Disney+. Disney—which assumed full possession of Hulu in 2019 after it purchased out Comcast’s stake—is probably going doing this on goal in an effort to incentivize prospects who don’t require live TV to shell out for a package deal that features its personal flagship streaming product. The package deal that mixes Hulu with Disney+ and ESPN+, for instance, prices $14 monthly—simply $1 greater than Hulu with No Ads will price after the worth hike goes into impact subsequent month.

In its third-quarter earnings report final month, Disney introduced that whereas Hulu nonetheless trails Disney+ in subscribers, it truly leads in common month-to-month income per person. Hulu’s subscription on-demand video service has additionally grown to 39.1 million subscribers, per the report, and its Live TV choice, which bundles its dwell and linear programming, has 3.7 million subscribers, resulting in a grand complete of 42.8 million complete subscribers—up 21% year-over-year.