Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Hulu Adds (Mostly) Ad-Free Subscription Service

Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins chalked up the exceptions to rights held by studios on select series. “They have other commitments that they couldn’t free them up for a complete commercial-free offering,” he said, adding that the service will clearly delineate the exceptions to users before they stream those series.

Other series that will have pre-roll include four ABC series: “How to Get Away with Murder,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Agents of SHIELD,” and an NBC series, “Grimm.”

Hulu is making the move in response to subscriber complaints voiced in various forms of consumer research about having to pay yet still watch ads. Earlier this month, a Parks Associates survey found that half of Hulu subscribers have canceled service over the past 12 months, compared to just 9% for Netflix over the same span.

The new subscription option brings Hulu in line with its commercial-free rivals Netflix, which remains several dollars cheaper than Hulu depending on which rate its own subscribers pay, and Amazon Prime, which charges $99 per year for access to its content library in addition to free two-day shipping.

From the article "Hulu Adds (Mostly) Ad-Free Subscription Service" by Andrew Wallenstein. 

Previously In The News

Here's The Top Ten Most Popular Streaming Services This Year

Netflix still leads all streaming video services by total subscribers, according to a new report by Parks Associates. That's followed by Amazon Prime, Hulu, MLB.TV, WWE Network, Sling TV, HBO Now, Cru...

Research: Increase in Digital Antenna Use Indicates Cord Cutting

The percentage of U.S. broadband households that use digital antennas in their home has steadily increased, reaching 20% near the end of 2017, up from 16% in early 2015, according to new consumer rese...

The Best Wearable Fitness Tech We Saw At CES 2017

It’s one of the biggest arms races of the 21st century—literally. Once the preserve of hardcore fitness junkies, the activity tracker industry has exploded into the mainstream and is now set to surpas...

BrightonSEO: Are Assistant-powered devices like Alexa a dream or a nightmare?

Raj then moved on to talk more specifically about voice search. He referenced research from ComScore last year which stated that by 2020, 50% of searches will be conducted via voice. Further research...