Providing market intelligence for more than 35 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

Most Broadband Users Still Pay For Television

Fortunately for pay-television providers, Kelling is not alone in what the industry calls “over-the-top” video consumption. According to the market research firm Parks Associates, 81 percent of U.S. h...

Smart TVs: Today’s center of video aggregation and opportunity —Industry Voices: Erickson

Smart TVs are viewed as must-have devices by an increasing number of US homes, and they are the only streaming video product category to have risen in adoption continuously throughout the pandemic. Ho...

Research: 310 Million Global Connected Households to Have at Least One OTT Service by 2024

More than 310 million connected households will at least one OTT service by 2024, according to a new report from Parks Associates. The report, OTT Video Services: Disruptive Globalization, estimate...

Nearly 50 Percent Of U.S. Broadband Households Used A Voice-Activated Digital Assistant in 2017

“Innovations such as voice have resonated with consumers, quickly creating new opportunities for companies to leverage voice as a user interface within the consumer IoT,” said Elizabeth Parks, SVP, Pa...