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

For Home Buyers, Move-In Ready Now Means More Technology

A new survey from Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC and Parks Associates found that Americans are thinking differently about “move-in ready” homes; they now want it to be “smart ready” too. According...

Pay TV Companies Are Losing Ground To OTA

The latest Parks Associates study is out, and it has more bad news for traditional pay TV companies. Once again, satellite and cable companies are seeing losses. And it’s not just streaming services t...

Consumers to TV Providers: Careful with My Data

One in five internet households report being “highly sensitive” to how TV content providers collect and use data about family members and their activities, according to the latest research from Parks...

Artificial Intelligence + Algorithms = Assumptions!

The public is awakening to this new threat of big data as “Big Brother” while acknowledging all its potential benefits. We do not need many of the idiocies promoted for profit in the Internet of Thing...